The Sheep Revolution in John Updike´s AP - 826 Words

At first glance, â€Å"AP† written by John Updike, looks like a funny, slangy, youthful story about a young, nineteen year old boy, Sammy, who has the normal problems that come along with his age group; abhorrence for his job, talking despondently about the older generation, and dreaming about girls he sees in the store. However, when people look at the history of the 1960’s, they find it shows a change in American social values and morals. Furthermore, the revolution of multiple groups of minorities through the civil rights movement, such as women, gays, and African Americans just to name a few who were at the forefront of issues during the 1960’s. Also, there was a revolt caused from the distrust of politicians, and from the 1950’s â€Å"family†¦show more content†¦One of the biggest social groups that had some of the major impacts during the 1960’s were the youths in America, consisting of late teens to the late twenties. However, other s that fell into that age group had already cemented their future with earlier choices in their lives. For example, the checker that worked next to Sammy, his name was Stokesie, a young twenty-two year old who was already married with two children. Stokesie also holds the belief that he will become store manager someday, which fit the mold of the start from the bottom and only with hard work can one move up style of the out dated ideologies of the past decade. Stokesie represents everything from the 1950’s â€Å"suburbiaism† that the youth revolution of the 1960’s was against. Many have argued that this story has a feminist undertone to the main idea. Conceding, that going into public is a bit bold, especially for the time period shows somewhat of a revolt by the girls. Although, someone can contend that if a girl or girls went into a grocery store in a bikini during today’s time, it would result in the same sort of reaction. One can also argue that the s tory is condescending toward women and shows them in a negative light. Especially, from the main character Sammy, with his description of the girls, also the nick names he gives the three girls like Plaid, Big Tall Goony-Goony, and Queenie. Moreover, the assumptions about how a girlsShow MoreRelatedJohn Updike’s AP1429 Words   |  6 Pagesthemselves and the previous generation. In John Updike’s â€Å"A P†, a teenage boy named Sammy works at a local store called AP. Sammy is a young casher, that stands up to his boss and he stands up for three girls who are dressed in bathing suits. Sammy lives in a small town, where nothing really happens. There is a struggle within every teenager. Sammy doesn’t like his job at the store or the store itself, and he finds the customers to be like sheep. â€Å"All this while, the customers had been showing