My curiosity was immediately sparked when I read the title of Updike’s short story, “A&P”. A quick Google search revealed that this was a popular supermarket chain, in the 1950s, that recently went out of business. As I continued reading, I realized that the grocery store was not the only outdated aspect of this story. Riddled with crude descriptions of women and overt sexism, “A&P” is a deeply troubling story that reflects the struggles of the female experience. Told from the perspective of a male, Sammy, Updike’s use of imagery and diction allows readers to see the world as he does. 

Sammy views women as objects to serve his sexual desires and discards them when they don’t. For instance, in the opening scene, Sammy is ringing up an older lady when three young girls enter the store. At once, he makes note of their clothing: bathing suits, which admittedly cause a stir in an otherwise dull grocery store. The issue is not that he notices their suits, but rather how his mind registers the scene. To him, they were in “nothing but bathing suits” (Updike 1) and he was taken by the one with a “sweet bread soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it” (Updike 1). Using this language, he rapidly sexualizes girls who are otherwise unaware of his existence. I found myself cringing at Sammy’s thoughts of the girls, but I did not initially consider him sexist. However, his interaction with an older female customer reveals that Sammy has a general disdain for women. He rings up the customer’s item twice while distractedly gawking at the girls. After she corrects him, his thoughts become overwhelmingly negative toward her, calling her “a witch … that would have burned in Salem” (Updike 1). During my second reading of “A&P”, I found this interaction to be even more telling of Sammy’s disrespect toward women because, in his interactions with men such as his boss and coworker, he behaves with humility. Sammy does not view women as figures of authority, which is reflected in his lack of respect for them. 

Despite his obvious attraction to the girls, Sammy is surprisingly critical of their appearances. In his observation of the tallest girl, he notes that her hair “hadn’t quite fizzed right” (Updike 1) and that she had a “chin that was too long” (Updike 1). For the shortest one, he makes repeated critiques about her weight, calling her “the fat one” (Updike 2). I found his comments to be uncalled for, especially considering that he still had not interacted with the girls at this point. Sammy conforms to the social standards of the time in which men dominate and women are considered inferior. These girls are a strange phenomenon that shakes up the grocery store and Sammy’s understanding of gender structures alike. As they carry on with their shopping, they do not acknowledge Sammy who grows angsty for validation. Thus, his criticisms are a way for him to balance the scale of male and female relations by humbling the girls. 

I found it most interesting that Sammy selected one of the girls to be the queen because it is reminiscent of what happens in reality. As in real life, he selects a woman to be the exception among the bunch and obsessively fantasizes about them. “She was the queen. She kind of led them” (Updike 1). “She kept her eyes moving across the rack, and stopped, and turned so slow it made my stomach rub the inside of my apron” (Updike 2). In his scrutinous observation of the girls, he constructs a version of them that may very well not exist. It is frightening to think about how often this happens in real life. From the perspective of a woman, we are taught to be hyper-vigilant to protect ourselves from people like the protagonist. It’s alarming to realize that despite how cordial and brief a woman may be in denying advances, she may already be in danger of what a man wants. The protagonist does not necessarily seem dangerous, but there are many who think like him and plot to get the object of their desires by any means necessary. 

The story builds up to Sammy’s “white knight” moment in which he quits his job after his manager publicly embarrasses the girls. “… I say “I quit” to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me” (Updike 4). To me, Sammy is no white knight, rather he is an individual hoping to capitalize on an unfortunate situation to appear heroic. In fact, Sammy’s thoughts up until this point indicate that he would otherwise agree with Lengel’s criticism. Earlier in the story, he notes that is much different for girls to be in their bathing suits on the beach “with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway” (Updike 2) than to be in the fluorescent lighting of A&P. He saw the rationale in Lengel’s argument and likely agreed with it. His actions were insincere and demonstrate that individuals are often progressive when it benefits them. Therefore, I found myself unsympathetic when the weight of Sammy’s rash actions came weighing down. 

Updike’s choice to make Sammy such a profoundly flawed narrator contributes to a deeper understanding of the story. Oftentimes, life is not black and white, and there are no clear heroes or damsels in distress. Rather, life is messy and uncomfortable, which Updike encapsulates in “A&P”.