Themes And Symbolism In A & P By John Updike

Most of the writer wrote their story by using different literary terms. The literary terms can be the basic elements of the story since it will affect everything inside the story. For example, theme is one of the literary terms and it is the main idea of the story. The literary terms can help the readers easier to understand the stories and it intensify the attractiveness of the story. In the story A&P, John Updike uses various literary terms to describe to form the story like character, setting, plot, tone, and symbolism. For example, John Updike describe the literary term characters in A&P. Character helps the writer to explain the main idea of A&P. Since the character plays an important role inside the story. For example, they might deliver …show more content…
Symbolism means the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meaning that are different from their literal sense. In A&P, John Updike describes Sammy quit the job as unsuspected hero. Unsuspected hero is a symbolism and it represent Sammy willing to sacrifice himself even though he will lose the job, and Queenie will not reply to him. As a result, this symbolism helps the reader easier to imagine the how do the character think and meaning of their action. Also, the symbolism will determine the story will deliver what message. In A&P, there is a different personal value towards the clothing between the manager and Queenie. Therefore, it caused a conflict between them and Sammy wish to defend for the girls. So at the end of the story, Sammy chooses to quit the job and it symbolize the love presented by Sammy to Queenie. Since the author wish to symbolize the love of Sammy so finally Sammy defends for Queenie and he lost the …show more content…
The setting can determine the environment and the surrounding event where the story will take place. Different setting will affect the story’s character tone, clothing, their activities. In A&P, it takes place in a supermarket and Sammy is one of the employee of A&P. Queenie is a customer and she walked in to buy something. However, she wore improper clothing and a supermarket is a public place. Therefore, it will cause a conflict between the manager and Queenie. If the story take place in the store next to the beach, the conflict might not happen since people will accept Queenie’s clothing if it is next to a beach. So that the setting can be very important to the story because it might change the direction of the story into a different way. Also, the time setting of A&P is in the past. So the though and the setting of the supermarket will be different to the one just now. For example, the supermarket in nowadays is much bigger than the one in A&P. Since the employee is not capable to see how do the customer act if they are in the cashier. So the setting is also one of the important literary terms to form a