A & P

The story “A & P” is a well written story with excellent detail. While reading this story I felt that John Updike had done an amazing job of describing everything to create a vivid mental picture. The detail that Updike uses in describing the three girls like “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet bread soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it” (Updike, 1) is probably the most detail I’ve ever seen or heard to describe a girls rear. At first because of the great detail Updike uses in describing the three girls I started to form the opinion that “Sammy” (Updike,20) and even Updike himself is kind of a pervert. Then I found that Updike goes into great detail in describing a lot of things like how he describes the aisle “they come around out of the far aisle, around the light bulbs, records at discount of the Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings or some such gunk you wonder they waste the wax on, sixpacks of candy bars, and plastic toys done up in cellophane that will fall apart when a kid looks at them anyway.” (Updike, 12) reminds me of a small town grocery store that I’ve been to. The way Updike uses detail made me feel like I was in the “A & P” with Sammy and the three girls.