In "A&P", the author John Updike utilizes various writing elements to convey a message and invite his readers to contemplate thought-provoking social ideas. Updike is particularly writing "out of the box" for 1961 when the story was published. Updike's use of setting, character and symbolism are key elements in this story. "Updike has constructed a highly entertaining moral tale in "A&P," guaranteed to amuse but in the end to instruct with bittersweet wisdom that grows from the magic in the telling" (Kellner). "A&P" by John Updike is a short story of a 19 year old young man named Sammy who works in a grocery store in small-town America. The main setting is the A&P, a popular and trusted grocery store back in the day. The reader gets the sense of cookie cutter houses, white picket fences, kids with flags and bells on their bicycles and nothing out of place or particularly notable. The reader gets a sense, however, that Sammy has other perceptions with his description of the A&P. Sammy's descriptions of the A&P suggest rigid monotony and bland uniformity. The fluorescent light is as blandly cool as the "checkerboard green-and-cream rubber tile floor" (Updike p.88). He goes on to say "everything is neatly organized and categorized in tidy aisles" (Updike p.88). When discussing the customers in the A&P Sammy says "These regular customers seem to walk through the store in a stupor; not even dynamite could move them out of their routine (Updike p.89). Keeping in mind the early 1960's was an age of innocence, pre-sexual revolution, pre-Vietnam Conflict and reflecting traditional and conservative values, Sammy's internal thoughts, ideas and perception were not the perceived norm. As such, Sammy keeps most of his thoughts to himself and the audience is only privy to them only because he is the narrator of the story. Although the setting is a key element to this story, I wonder if Updike could have written this story without showing so many signs of the times.
