Introduction
This essay will dwell on the power of desire and the mystery of other people’s thoughts. The short story brings out desire and the ability to interpret the mind of other people and come up with a conclusive statement.
The Influence of Desire
At the beginning of the book, three young women walk into an A and P grocery shop in swimming suits, in a remote English town. Sammy, a young man, working at the store pays attention to the girls keenly. He takes notes of their beautiful faces and shapely bodies. From the moment the two young ladies walk into the shop, they attract attention to them from the young man. This goes to show their power and influence. Their sexuality gives the women an upper advantage over the opposite sex. Even though, one of the women, Queenie, successfully remains calm and ignores all the eyes on them, scanning their actions, as long as they focused on their objectives al would be well (Updike 214). As long as the women ignore men’s advances, they remain in position of influence and authority that is, provoking desire but not indulging in it. Their plan goes on very well. Then men workers at “A and P” even the strict and focused Lengel, shows some level of sexual curiosity toward the women. Nevertheless, lengel, eventually challenges the teenage girl’s strategy and makes a move in order to weaken their power. He takes a bold step and criticizes them on the basis of the manner in which they dressed. Their outfits were not suitable for walking around the store. Queenie defends her friends and claims that all the girls are decent women. Furthermore, when the women arrive at the meat counter, they inquired on something and as they left, McMahon was looking after the women and stroking his mouth (Updike 213). The fact that the girls had too much power over the men to the extent they had no option but look after the girls proved their influence of their sexuality over the men workers at the store.
Even though the writer claims that, the young women came at a time when business was low and so the workers’ attention shifted easily,(Updike 213), even if the store was abuzz with various activities, the men would notice the teenage women due to the mode of the dressing.
Mystery of Other Peoples’ Mind
From the beginning to the end of the book, Sammy, the central character of the book displays competence in both spotting other people and collecting information from his spotting actions. However, when the girls walk into the store, he mesmerizes and loses the power to read and discern their thoughts and perceive their actions. In addition, when a client rebukes Sammy’s lack of attention, Sammy describes the lady as a witch from Salem and wonders the underlying reasons that could make the woman interfere with his life and mood. According to Sammy, the customers at the ‘A and P’ store are straightforward and simple to gain understanding into their lives. The same can be said about for Stokie and Lengel, who Sammy claims to know him in and out like the palm of his hand (Updike 215). When the young women enter into the store, Sammy loses his power of reading and interpreting minds. He cannot figure out the kind of life they live hence it is hard interpreting their thoughts. That is not to imply Sammy does not make an effort to try to figure out their thoughts behind their smiles. In fact, Sammy tries figuring out Queenie’s issues going behind the mind of Queenie. At some point Sammy believes he is successful in understanding what goes behind the curtain of the mind of the three women. Nevertheless, at end of the story, he proves otherwise, he quits his job, because the girls still puzzle his mind. He quits so that the girls may think he supports them. None of the girls turns their heads and watch him while quitting. They continue walking toward the exit point in a hurry. In fact, they do not take note of their unsung hero who seems to defend them against Lengel’s scathing attacks in indecent dressing.
When Lengel walks into the store and catches the young women in swimming suits, he corrects them and insists that the store is not a beach (Updike 214). His remarks point to the lack of discernment of the mind, Even more interesting is that he breaks routine and takes his time to correction them. However, he seems attracted to their dressing code rather more than the rectification.
In summary, the short narrative story ‘A and p’ by Updike revolves around Sammy and his shot his encounter with the women who made him quit his job. Three young women walk into the store and draw all the attention to them due to the swimming suits they put on. All the men workers are lost for words and stare shamelessly while the women ignore them and go about their business.
Works cited
John Updike. ‘A & P’
