A & P

I have just read the story “A&P” by John Updike. This story was rather unique in my eye because it was a story I could relate to in a way.

I have worked during the summer in my pool’s snack bar for the past four years and have been managing it for the past two. I love the job for the most part, but sometimes I just have days like the one Sammy had. I think the predominant theme in this story is the epiphany and how it can happen as randomly as on this Thursday. I think it is a recurring theme in literature as well. The author made perfect use of it in this story I thought.

I think that this story could easily have taken place during any time period. It could have taken place 70 years ago or even 7 years ago. This is a very easy story to set within any timeframe. There would be some slight differences however. I think one of the main differences would be the age of the characters and the choice of clothing the author picked to portray the girls. I also think that the manager would have been depicted as a really evil mustachioed black haired man if it were to take place in the 30s as opposed to the 90s where he probably would have been an old lanky bald man. The ability to place this story during any time period still goes undamaged though.

By the end of the story I really just found Sammy to be another awkward teenager trying to impress some girl he had never met before. He had an epiphany that had the perfect timing for a halfway upsetting conclusion. The only thing I didn’t like about this story is that I didn’t feel like anything got resolved.