Remember, you need to submit a separate question for each
piece of literature. I will answer the question regarding the theme of lost innocence as
it pertains to Updike's "A & P."
In this story,
Sammy is a youngster working in a grocery store. It is a hot summer day, and all of a
sudden three young women, close to his age, enter the store clad only in bathing suits.
Sammy and the young man he works with are overwhelmed at this sight: what a
treat.
In his mind, Sammy takes in every detail: how the
girls are different, who the "leader" is, the slipping of a bathing suit strap, the way
the "leader" walks on her feet, the path they take through the store and even their tan
lines. Sammy watches so intently that he makes a mistake on the order he is ringing
up.
Luckily, as they approach the front of the story, the
other checkout lane is filled, so the girls come to his line.
However, the manager comes out and scolds the girls for their inappropriate dress, not
at all an unusual expectation of that time period.
After
they leave, Sammy takes a stand with the store manager, a friend of the family. He
suggests they weren't doing anyone any harm. The manager reviews the store rules, but
Sammy quits on the spot.
Sammy does this for himself; the
girls are long gone. The manager shakes his head, though he doesn't really argue with
Sammy. However, Sammy felt "ethically compelled" to speak up in the face of what he saw
as unfair treatment. In that very moment, he somehow realizes that life will never be
the same for him.
He has left adolescent innocence and
naiveté behind, as if he has left Neverland. He will never be able to return to a time
when life was so easy, so black-and-white. In this there is a loss of his innocence as
he takes the step that a man might take rather than a boy, and he knows he has somehow
turned one of life's "big corners."
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