Iulia Maria Rusu

Anul I, Studii de limb englez i literaturi anglo-americane

Feminism in John Updike's A&P
John Updike (1932-2009) is considered to be one of Americas most distinguished
and prolific writers. One of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more
than once, Updike published during his career more than twenty novels, more than a
dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism. He was born on
March 18, 1932, in Pennsylvania, the only child of Wesley Russell, a mathematics
teacher and an aspiring writer, Linda Grace. In one of his interviews, Updike stated that
My mother used to have dreams about being a writer and I used to watch her, so it was
his mother who encouraged his literary ambitions.
Throughout his career, Updike has integrated history with his work and has
observed the mundane life he saw around him that a chronicle of America could be
written from his work. Even if Updikes plots have focused on the ordinary, his themes
are complex and have centred on existential questions. In one of his autobiographical
essays, he identified art, sex and religion as the three major secret things in human
experience. John Updike has been among the most omnivorous readers in American
literature and his reading shows his development as a writer. As a result, Updike
frequently refers to various American writers, promoting Ernest Hemingways style,
quoting Wallace Stevens and explaining Henry James difficulties of writing historical
fiction.
John Updike excelled at Harvard, graduating in the class of 1954. After he retuned
to United States, he started to write for The New Yorker. His first short story entitled
Friend from Philadelphia appeared in the magazine on October 30, 1954. What was even
more important was that, while he continued to write for the magazine, its editors
continued to buy his fiction and poems. His success as a growing writer enabled him to
quit and focus on his writing. John Updike became famous after he published his poetry
collection The carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures (1958), his first novel The

Poorhouse Fair (1959) and his short story collection The Save Door (1959). These early
works featured the influence of J. D. Salinger (A&P), John Cheever, Marcel Proust
and James Joyce.
Though Updike wrote fewer short stories in his last decade than earlier in his
career, he is regarded as one of the best short story writer in American literature. Updikes
short stories contain a great deal of biographical information and offer a rich examination
of his life.
Like many of his short stories, A&P first appeared in The New Yorker on July, 22,
1961 and despite its brevity it continues to be one of Updikes most widely enjoyed and
read short story. Published in 1961, A&P is considered to be a perfect depiction of that
time. It was a period of prosperity but the beginning of the decade was a turbulent time in
the United States history since everyone was searching for a new and different meaning
of the word freedom. A&P is a deeply American story about social inequality and an
attempt to bridge the gap between social classes (Kirszner, 2008: 360).
In this story, like in many others, Updike draws on memories of his childhood and
teenage years. In order to depict his times and also concerned about every aspect of his
books, Updike chooses to name his work A&P after a real grocery store chain founded in
New York City in 1859. The setting of the story is in a conservative New England town
during the summer tourist season around 1960 and it is told by an eighteen years old boy
who is working as a cashier in an A&P store. The entire story is delivered in colloquial
style and the voice created for Sammy, the narrator, is both deliberately casual and
descriptive in a poetic way. Updike chooses to maintain Sammys language colloquial
throughout the story, beginning sentences with really and you know, including
hesitations and remarks in order to keep the language as natural as it can be. The effect of
this technique is to make sure that the reader will not mistake the narrators voice with
the writers voice.
When three adolescent girls enter the store wearing only their bathing suits,
Sammy is hypnotized. Some critics argue that the girls have entered the store seeking
attention for their physical appearance. He describes the appearance and actions of the
girls giving a lot of details, observing that something about their behaviour suggests some
kind of upper-class lifestyle that contrasts with his own. As the girls prepare to make their

purchase, the store manager notices their indecent appearance. Hoping the girls will see
and appreciate his gesture, Sammy abruptly quits his job in protest. Although he realizes
that he might later regret his impulsive action, Sammy follows through with his decision
to quit and walks off the job. By the time he walks outside into the parking lot, however,
the girls are already gone.
Some critics have stated that A&P is just a simple tale about a young boy, a
grocery store workers encounter with three girls in the middle of the summer. According
to Laurie Kirszner, even if the plot of the story is quite simple, what is at the heart of the
story is complex: a noble gesture that serves as a futile attempt to cross social and
economic boundaries (Kirszner, 2008: 360).
The whole story is presented through Sammys eyes and this is how readers can
see the class conflict that defines the story. There are two different categories of people in
the story: the young girls in bathing suits and the few customers who are shopping in the
store. Sammy refers to the customers as sheep, describes some of them as houseslaves
in pin curlers and depicts one of the cash-register-watchers as being a witch about fifty
with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows. This may seem like just a response
made out of anger but critics emphasize that this use of language refers to the most
oppressive time for women in America. However, when it comes to the young girls the
narrator uses language to make assumptions about them. Critics underline that the male
oriented nature of our society is revealed through the way the womens bodies are
described in the story. The fact that the focus is on their bodies shows how society treated
women in those times. As the girls walk around the store the narrator ranks them on their
looks. He describes one of the girls as being the chunky one and the second one as
being the kind of girl other girls think is very striking and attractive but never quite
makes it. Sammys categorization of the young girls only serves his own idea to name
the third girl Queenie, the leader, the girl who didnt look around, not this queen, she
just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs.
The technique of ranking women based just on their beauty where girls are not
valued for their knowledge or skills and where the most beautiful woman is the most
powerful shows one of the ways in which this story reproduces the American society,

where all power structures are male-oriented. The prettiest girl is assumed to be the leader
of the other girls based just on her physical features.
Furthermore, Sammy admits that he is ignorant to the working of womens mind
and this is stated on the very first page: you never know for sure how girls minds work
(do you really think its a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?). This
is an obvious criticism of womens intelligence portraying them as being less intelligent
than men. Queenie, whose name suggests her superior status, is in direct contrast to
Sammy and even he recognizes her independence. He has to spend the summer working
while she comes to the A&P store just to buy an exotic and expensive herring snack. She
exhibits confidence (she just walked straight on) focusing on her actions and on her
own needs.
Getting rid of the idea of women as property has always played an important role
in feminist movements. The tension arises not because the girls are in bathing suits, but
because they are in bathing suits in a place where people don't normally wear bathing
suits, since our town is five miles from a beach, with a big summer colony out on the
Point, but we're right in the middle of town, and the women generally put on a shirt or
shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street, Sammy says in order to
explain peoples reactions. They have crossed a line about what is socially acceptable.
When Lengel, the store manager confronts the girls telling them that they are indecently
dressed, Queenie answers suddenly, saying that we are decent!. By quitting his job,
Sammy challenges social inequality but unlike Queenies act of defiance, Sammys
actions will have long term consequences.
John Updikes A&P depicts a troubling view of women and their position within a
patriarchal society through the language used to describe them but also through the
assumptions made about them. According various critics reading of A&P, a story they
describe as an examination of how modern consumer culture is created and accepted or
rejected by those exposed to it, provides evidence that Updikes fiction may prove fertile
ground for broad cultural readings. (Mazzeno, 2013: 190).
Based on the success of these early works and short stories published in The New
Yorker, Updike gained recognition as one of Americas literary stars. On the other hand,
due to the fact that he published a book of fiction or prose each year and that he also

wrote for a variety of magazines, Updikes fame grew exponentially, placing him among
the most important writers of the era. As a writer of the 20 th century, he embodied the idea
of talent, dedication and also a lot of hard work that could enable one to achieve the
American Dream. Updike has received numerous honours and awards and, at the age of
32 he became the youngest member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters.
Bibliography:
1. Batchelor, B. John Updike: A Critical Biography. California: Praeger, 2013.
2. Bellis, J. The John Updike Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000.
3. Kirszner, L., Mandell, S. The Wardsworth Handbook, 8th edition. Boston:
Thomson Wardsworth, 2008.
4. Kirszner, L., Mandell, S. Compact Literature, 9th edition. Boston: Cengage
Learning, 2016.
5. Mazzeno, L. W. Becoming John Updike: Critical Reception, 1958-2010. New
York: Camden House, 2013.
6. Oakes, E. H. American Writers. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004.
7. Updike, J. Pigeon Feathers and other stories. New York: Random House Trade
Paperbacks, 1959.