John Updike's A&P

John Updike’s "A&P" features a few moments in the life of a young man who works at a grocery store. He becomes enamored of three girls who walk into the store dressed in bathing suits. The protagonist Sammy, finds that his choices lead to sometimes disappointing consequences as he is faced with having to explain awkward circumstances to his parents. Updike develops this coming of age story using details as part of the …

…moves from innocence (and ignorance) to experience (and knowledge)"(Peck 2). It is also a great example of resolution that many people could learn from. Perhaps the most appropriate meaning of the story is expressed by Leon Lewis. "If the reward for selling out is a life like Lengel’s, then even an act that no one but its agent appreciates is better that the defeat of submerging the self in the despair of denial"(Lewis 2378).