A&P reflects discriminations against women in the 1960’ of American society
Introduction:
The story happens in a summer day. Three girls in nothing but bathing suits walk into an A&P grocery to make a purchase. A nineteen years old clerk called Sammy resigns in order to draw their attention when Lengel, the manager, tells the three girls that they are dress inappropriately, which make them very embarrassing but he just finds their leaving when he go out of the grocery.
    Some people have been made reaches on its themes, writing techniques. A&P reveals the conflicts between personal demands and social principles; Sammy’s courtly love for him calls his idol ”Queenie” ; the libido of Sammy.文本呼唤结构，不确定性，空白 technique is using in the story. I will talk about the discriminations against women in A&P by analyzing it’s settings at that time, the main character’s views about the three girls and the manager’s attitude towards the girls.
Body:
The three girls are anti-traditional which includes discriminations against woman. The setting in 1960’s American shows the social discriminations against women. The story was published in 1961 and the 1960’s society of American is very confusing: the civil right movement, the war against Vietnam, sex revolution and feminist movement which produce profound effects on people. When blacks are fighting for their rights, women also confront with much visible or invisible sexual discrimination both from black men and white men, and people don’t get rid of the traditional ideas that women are subordinate to men or they are just the sex instruments. Women realize they suffer much oppress and are treated unequal only for the reason of gender, and they have to fight for their own equal rights by different ways which means they have to against the traditional ideas. That the three girls just wear bathing suits is a way to against traditional views toward women. They show that women could wear what they like and they don’t need to obey traditional principles.
Sammy also has prejudice to women. Sammy judges women just from their appearances. He describes a fifty woman customer as a witch because she is old and not beautiful. However, he describes “Queenie” as his queen because she is sexually attractive and bea
utiful. Sammy’s impression of the three girls are all from the outside aspects, such as, their feathers smoothed, belly was still pretty pale, chubby berry-faces, black hair that hadn’t quite frizzed right, long white prima donna legs. He never judge them from the inside aspect that girls are also humans and they also have minds and good or bad characteristics not just beautiful or ugly faces. He is attracted by his queen just because of her sexed body and her beauty, and from the idea “you never know for sure how girls’ minds work (do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?)” we also can see Sammy’s looking down on girls.
Lengel’s attitudes show a man’s ideas that women should    obey traditional principles. He repeats that that isn’t beach and he adds that “We want you decently dressed when you come in here” even though Queenie becomes blushing. His attitude isn’t so good when he want to warn the girls’ wear because he cannot stand anything or anyone that obey traditional principles.
Conclusion:
  A&P is a very successful story which reflects many aspects of 1960’s American society. Through a little story happens in a grocery, John updike describes the situations of discriminations against women and many different conflicts in society of American at that time. Some critics think that this story is failed because its limits of full of prejudices about women , and updike himself is a misogynist, but I don’t think so and I think that his intention is just to show the real situation not his own ideas about women.
References
庞媛媛. 20 世纪60 年代美国女权运动的特点[J]信阳师范学院历史文化学院
宋鑫.从属·他者·比基尼女郎——从女权主义角度浅析厄普代克的短篇小说《A&P》[J]文艺荟萃2014(11)124
巩凡.美国女权运动的第二次浪潮 （20世纪60—80年代）山东师范大学
Zhao Jingpeng. The Contrast between Social Criterion and individual Request in A&P [J]语文学刊（高教外文版）2007unequal（8）
哈旭娴.直觉与习俗的撞击—简析厄普代克的短篇小说《A&P》主题[J]江苏广播电视大学学报2002（10）13-5

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