A Feminist Reading of John Updikes A&P Essay -- John Updike A&P

A Feminist Reading of A&P Gone are the days that humans could live impulsively, barely taking physical pain and pleasure into account when making decisions. Or so one would like to believe. In a display of sheer honour and ignorance, Sammy, a grocery clerk at the A & P, managed to revert back to the original behavior patterns of his ape-like ancestors. One cannot possibly predict the future of Sammy, given his knowledge illogical and irrational behavior. But one can, through a careful examination of Sammys life, determine that Sammy is just a naive, young man whose impulsive acts, partially as a consequence of his upbringing, compel him to participate in a cause not worth fighting for, instead of using his talents for more reconstructive purposes. No matter how much Sammy tried, he could not transcend the rational barriers of his evolutionary counterpart, the ape. From the moment that Sammy first gazed upon those three young women in bathing suits to his fusillade and subsequen t resignation, Sammy was not able to separate reason from basic finish upual instinct. Sammy first makes the comment, The longer her neck was, the more of her there was, (Updike 408) and later says, From the third schedule I look straight up this aisle to the meat counter, and I watched them all the way (Updike 408). After hours--perhaps tear put down years--of being deprived of the sight of a beautiful girl, Sammy gave in to the natural animal tendency to observe and pursue a member of the opposite sex. It was of no consequence to Sammy that he did not even know the three girls and had not seen very much of them. Sammys only overriding desire was, simply put, sex. Sammy made no effort to rationally think nearly what he was doing instead, he acted on an impulse stemmin... ...ions were divulged, and Sammy began to really realize what he was doing, his actions became more noble. One can learn from Sammy the importance of not backing down once decisions are made, and to stand up for ones own opinions despite what other people think. If one can disregard Sammys initial ape-like motives which stressed the importance of the sex drive, there is much to be learned from that now-eminent grocery clerk. If people finally decide to stand up for what they believe, themselves and the world indubitably be bettered. And then, the world would overhaul less rampant with people who appear to have missed their fair share of natural selection, and the world would be a much more spiritually sound place. Works CitedUpdike, John. A & P. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 2nd Edition. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston St. Martins Press, 1990. 407-411.