John Updike's A&P.

Another class disparity is noticed between Sammy and Lengel.  Not only is Lengel the store manager, and by definition in a class above Sammy, but he is also part of the group that makes the policy for the store.  Sammy goes as far as grouping him with the “kingpins.”  Again, in a Marxist government, where everyone works for the good of the community, there is no need for these rules; or policies as Lengel calls them.  Sammy is then left with a choice between trying to be above the “kingpins”-by being accepted into a group who he describes as being in a “place from which the crowd that runs the A&P must look pretty crummy”-or working for the policy makers.  Sammy’s decision to quit, the climax in the story, also symbolizes his coming of age leaving his childhood behind-symbolized by the apron-knowing he can never return to it.  The last line in the resolution when Sammy realizes how hard the world was going to be from then on is his loss of innocence and entry into adulthood, thus making him the only dynamic, although flat, character in a story where every other character is flat and static.  The last line also conveys the theme of the story: hasty decisions often lead to disappointment.

There is also a class difference between the three girls and the other patrons in the store.  Simply by using Sammy’s observations of the “sheep” who follow a set pattern for walking down the aisles and the girls going against the established pattern shows us that the three girls are accustomed to doing things their way, i.e. they are spoiled; a characteristic of high society adolescents.  The girls are also shown to be non-conformists to the non-written rules when contrasted with the other shoppers pushing their carts and reading their grocery list while the girls simply walk in and grab their one snack and leave.  Sammy even tells us that the normal patrons, who would not even look up from their grocery lists if dynamite went off in the store, noticed Queenie and were impressed when they looked at her.  Even the way Queenie blushed during her conflict with Lengel tells us she was embarrassed by the whole situation-where she felt out of place because of her high stature in society.  These scenes, of course, would never have taken place in Marxist cultures because the government would have provided for it’s citizens and the girls would have never found themselves being humiliated in front of a lesser class of people.

All the conflicts that take place in Updike’s “A&P” would have been avoided in a Marxist society.  Lengel and Sammy would have never had a confrontation because Sammy would not have been trying to impress a high society girl.  Likewise, the three girls would not have found themselves shopping for a snack in the A&P because the government would have provided it for them.  This leaves us with one question, however, In a Marxist society, would Sammy have realized his adulthood or would he have remained a child?