A&P

The short story A&P by John Updike is a socio culture, symbolism first-person narrative. This story is told through the eyes of a cashier, Sammy. He works at the grocery store A&P, and he notices three girls enter the store one day, all dressed in nothing but their bathing suits. He goes into a heavy description of the girls; describing their bathing suits and individual characteristics of the girls, especially the “chunky one in the plaid green two piece,” Sammy says he really likes her can, or as we know it: he is saying she has a nice butt. The girls go about the store traveling aisle to aisle looking for what it is they came to buy. Sammy and his co-worker Stoksie follow the girls with their eyes all over the store. Actions of customers around the store are also taken to note by Sammy and he sees how these girls, and how they walk and carry themselves, are affecting the other customers and their actions. He sees all the other customers as nothing but sheep being herded by carts out the door but he does not see the girls in their bathing suits this way. Eventually the girls make their way to the front and happen to come to Sammy’s register to pay for the one thing they came for what was some herring in cream sauce in a can. When the girls are in his line, Sammy's manager then takes notice of the girls and how they are not dressed properly to be shopping in the store. The way Lengel, Sammy's manager, handles the situation Sammy does not appreciate and finds his manager to be somewhat humiliating and embarrassing the girls. Sammy wanting to be noticed by the girls takes on this badass persona and speaks out to his manager hoping the girls would hear, telling his manager he quits. It is a massive failure on Sammy’s part and he is not noticed. The girls continue out the door and Sammy loses his job by quitting. Sammy is now stuck with no girls and no job and from this point on realizes his life just got a lot harder.

The theme that John Updike takes on in this short piece is socio-culture and symbolism of society. Sammy describing the girls in heavy detail is one part of the symbolism, “The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs,” The symbolism of this quote is very descriptive and borders the sexuality aspect of what these girls represent walking into the store in nothing but their bathing suits. The fact that the two men in front of the store glue their eyes to these females walking in because they are dressed somewhat provocatively and have promiscuous body language with how they walk around the store, “She didn't look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs,” describes girls in general and especially this story are a perfect way to symbolize being sexy or attractive. The socio-culture part of the theme is described through the customers and cashier watcher. A cashier watcher is someone who makes sure you do your job right and is supposed to correct you if you mess up. Sammy in this case messed up but didn't like being corrected so he sees her as a witch in the society, someone he doesn't want to respect or care what they say and is just plain annoying and should not exist. He says, “if she'd been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem,” this quote truly expresses how Sammy sees this lady in the society of where he works. Sammy's description of the customers as nothing but, “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle -- the girls were walking against the usual traffic,” Sammy has developed this sense of culture in the store he works that all the customer basically just come here as a routine and mean nothing to him but not these girls. The girls are seen for what they are and more because they are attractive and he wants their attention, is why he tries so hard to impress them in the end.

Everyday Use

The short story ‘Everyday Use’ by Alice Walker is a short piece about the Johnson family, an African-American family of three. The story is told through a first person narrative, the mother ‘Mama’ in the story is the narrator. She has two daughters, Maggie and Dee. The sisters are not very close and quite opposites in who they are and grow up to be. Maggie is shy and very dependent on Mama; she holds on to her mother for security. Dee, however, is independent, went to college and is very knowledgeable and wants the most out of life. Throughout the story, Dee expresses how she has gone through all of her change in life to separate herself from the past and her family. The family had experienced their home burned down years ago. Dee was sent away to school in Augusta and had to leave Mama and Maggie by themselves. Maggie remained dependent on Mama because she was injured from the house fire.

Dee is visiting her home after many years and she shows up very nicely dressed and is very direct in her ways of communicating. She stops her mother right away as we find out Dee has changed her name, “Not ‘Dee,’ Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo!” What happened to 'Dee’?” (...) She’s dead,” Wangero said. “I couldn't bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” as what she believes is a new identity; a strong African-American woman that has decided to go through certain changes to be different, be better. But with a new identity - she totally rejects her own roots because her name was not in fact from any oppressors, it was passed down through family ties. As any mother, Mama wants to rekindle her relationship with Dee. She fantasizes or dreams a lot about how she would attempt to rebuild that relationship. However, she also resents Dee for having an education - perhaps mainly because she does not understand it. But towards the end of this visit, Mama realizes that her relationship with Dee has no hope and favors Maggie by giving her the exquisite quilts that have been passed through generations in the family and symbolizes that true heritage value. 

Staying true to yourself is a strong message throughout this story. Dee does make many changes but she also denies her heritage which is a big part of any human being. She treats valuable family items very superficially instead of personally. And she hides behind her expensive attire and long-life wandering of finding a persona that she still doesn't seem to feel comfortable with. All while on the other side, Mama and Maggie are at ease with their lives even though they remain poor and uneducated, “And then the two of us just sat there enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed,” while Dee might be the quite opposite: rich and educated and have gone through all those changes but will never truly be at peace.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The story revolves around the Grandmother, her son Bailey and his wife and children preparing to all go on a trip to Florida. Early in this story, we realize that nobody pays attention to the Grandmother and arguments come about constantly. It all begins with how The Grandmother would rather go to east Tennessee instead. She approaches Bailey in hopes of changing his mind about the upcoming trip. She brings to his attention an article about ‘The Misfit’, an escaped criminal heading toward Florida. To reinforce her point of not going there; she also adds that the children have already been there. The Grandmother says that she would never take her children near such a dangerous criminal, and that she “couldn’t answer to (her) conscience if (she) did.” reflecting on how she fears to get in touch with ‘The Misfit’ as if that was her biggest fear. John Wesley, the 8-year-old boy suggests that the Grandmother stays home and on the contrary, his sister, June Star confirms that the Grandmother would never do so. The Grandmother attempts to manipulate by using guilt to get her way.

This suggests that the Grandmother is quite selfish deep down - especially displayed by bringing her cat ‘Pitty Sing’ in a basket in the car, only because ‘he (the cat) would miss her too much’ which sounds nothing but kind or caring but she abuses the selfishness by keeping it a secret. She makes it evident through multiple attempts replacing the ‘bad’ parts of the story with more ‘good’ sayings or positive outcomes; such as “I wouldn’t talk about my native state that way. Tennessee has the mountains and Georgia has the hills.” after John Wesley says, “Let’s go through Georgia fast so we won’t have to look at it much,” to which she adds and ends with, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then.” and then flips the topic instantly by not letting anyone add anything else to her ‘proper’ views on the world, “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!’ she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack.” and that that would make a great picture and that if she could paint she would paint that picture. This sentence is quite intense as it really displays her overall views - longing for the ‘Old South’. The Grandmother thinks the others are simply behaving ignorant of what it means to be ‘good.’ as if she is trying to keep ‘good’ on constant to the point that it turns obsessive. She keeps annoying the others speaking on every situation in hopes to adjust for a more ‘proper’ outcome; for example when she reminds Bailey to keep the speed limit and therefore; they will stay out of trouble. The responses she got from John Wesley and June Star reflects on the morals of today’s society that she has no choice but to live in but largely disagrees with - then flips the topic in an instant to proudly showcase her own old-fashioned morals that also reveals racism throughout. The Grandmother always makes sure she has a ’proper’ outcome to it all - even her appearance; she dresses up for the trip, confident that, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady,” she will be looked at as a proper lady, no matter what. But we find out in the end that her looks and behavior might have seemed all proper and ‘good’ on the outside… but it is the inside; the true intentions that truly matters and therefore, ‘a (truly) good man is hard to find’.