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Symbolism In John Updike's A & P

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In modern day society, going out of the social norm of acting and dressing like others is a conflict that collides with a person’s individuality to act on what they feel is the right thing to do. In John Updike’s “A&P”, he sheds light on how societal norms are inflexible and how Sammy, the main character, seeks to not conform to what everyone else in his town are doing and finds validation to pursue his individuality through the nonconformity of the three girls who enter the A&P store. However, while Updike write about Sammy’s ordinary life and brings the three girls in the story to represent freedom, they have an affect on Sammy and helps him realize that there is more to his life other than working in A&P everyday. The author advances his …show more content…
Updike states, “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A&P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists and muttering ‘Let me see, there was a third thing…’ A few house slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts to make sure what they had seen was correct”(2). To Sammy, while observing to reactions of the customers towards the girls, they represent social conformity while the girls are going against the norm of social society by walking around in their bathing suits. Not only does the attire of the girls catch the attention of the customers, but it implies that the girls symbolize freedom to Sammy while the house slaves in pincurls represents the typical housewife who stay at home and take care of the kids.Thus, bringing all the elements of symbolism throughout the story including the girl's bathing suit, the on going customer, and Lengel all contribute to the meaning of someone trying to find themselves and gain individualism from the norm of social society. The girls represent freedom while Lengel portrays himself as the authority figure such as the law does. Lengel is against what the girls are wearing such as society would be but Queenie stands up for her and her friends by stating , “we are decent” (4) which represents her non conformity towards the rules and society. This makes Sammy realize how dull his life is when he states, “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A&P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists…”, which imply how oblivious people are towards their surroundings because they just follow their same routine everyday and live life on a

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