The story is set in a conservative New England town before the sexual revolution and pre-hippies 1960s. Life tends to be stable, predictable and consistent. Sammy has recently turned nineteen years old; an age at which the stone that things were once written in, begins to erode. The late teen years tend to be the age when most people begin to have a greater sense of who they truly are. As a result, they will tend to challenge authority as well as the values and social mores that they have been told all their lives are “right”. However, this age also marks the period in life where the line between childish rebellion and asserting oneself as a responsible adult becomes blurry.

The town that “A&P” is set in seems to be anything but accommodating to this period in life. The area is reminiscent of those towns such as Oxford and my hometown, Vicksburg, which have offici

Some topics in this essay:
John Updike, Sammy Stokesie’s, Lengel Stokesie, , period life, quit job,