Article Critique Essay

Risky Business Jodi Picoult once stated, “It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.” In John Updike’s short story, “A&P”, three teenage girls enter an ordinary, reserved grocery store, wearing nothing but their revealing bathing suits. With the detailed descriptions that Sammy provides of the bathing suits, the additional customers’ reactions to the girls, and the manager of the grocery store in the 1950’s feedback, Updike portrays how extrinsic the girls’ rebellion was in such an ordinary place, making a typical day, into the irregular. The characterization that Sammy contributes of what the three girls were wearing exhibits how disproportionate they were in such a common location. While examining Queenie, the ringleader of the girls, when she first promenaded into the store, wearing nothing but a bathing suit, Sammy stated, “With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her…” (17). While Sammy gained a better look of the young woman, he described her chest region as looking similar to “…a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light” (17). He continued further to say Queenie “…was more than pretty” (17). With Queenie dressed very risqué, she constructed a roadblock in Sammy’s ability to continue his daily work and also an unordinary predicament in the average supermarket in this time period. The manner in which the additional customers in the store reacted to how the girls dressed themselves also displays how abnormal the trio appeared. While the gals strolled through the aisles, not minding how they were dressed, searching for their somewhat fancy sardines, the customers, “…kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup…” (17). As the girls continued on their mission for the item needed, “A few houseslaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct” (18). With the girls clothed in revealing and provocative swimwear, the shoppers were stunned and drawn back by the tactic in which the lassies decided on dressing on that run-of-the-mill day. The grocery store manager, Lengel, was astonished by the way the girls were dressed in this 1950’s market. After Sammy checked out the single can of “Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream…” (18),

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Essay on Article Critique