An Interview with John Updike

              In this interview, John Updike reveals why he chose to write his short story "A&P" and gives the reader insight to his feelings on the story and its characters. The story "A&P" is about how an adolescent boy, Sammy, who works in a small town grocery store quits his job over three girls that come in wearing only bikinis or at least that was my portrayal of the story. I think this interview was especially interesting because it really made me see the story for how Updike wanted it to be portrayed. Updike portrays Sammy as not only a love struck teenage boy, which is how I saw him, but as much more. He says Sammy is a rebellious, blue collar adolescent longing for a white collar girl, who in turn quits his job in a noble act of standing up for this girl. And even though I saw Sammy’s act of quitting his job as noble, I believed that it was just all for the attention of “Queenie”, the girl that he liked. But Updike’s portrayal really made me see an underlying theme that wasn’t so evident to me when I read it. Updike explains that Sammy also represents a boy who is reaching out of his norm and striving for something better in life. That Sammy is saying he is not going to be a sheep, which is how Updike refers to the customers of the A&P, he is going to do the right thing and just take the consequences. This explanation of Sammy really did shed some new light on his character for me and allowed me to see him in a more noble way. Even though I’m still not sure I would go as far to say that he is a hero, at least not by my definition of the word.

Word Count: (305)