There are over fifty years between the idea of "A&P" and The Awakening. The time does not yield the connection between these two stories. "A&P" is a coming of age tale about the importance of decisions. Main character, Sammy, quits his job after his boss shows disrespect towards three beautiful girls at the store. The Awakening is a story about the fight for women's independence and individuality. The novel is based in the life of Edna, a married woman with two children. She strays away from her normal, basic life to experience the freedoms of an artist. Kate Chopin's The Awakening and John Updike's "A&P" have comparable themes that are portrayed through character and setting.
The theme of identity is present in The Awakening. In this story, Edna feels bored with herself. She decides to try out a new life. This causes a lot of problems to occur for her. She experiences adultery, depression, and second thoughts about being a mother. She could not find her identity in the end, which led to her alleged suicide. Edna enjoyed being doing as she pleased, as shown here: "She began to do as she liked and to feel as she liked. She completely abandoned her Tuesdays at home and did not return the visits of those who had called upon her" (Chopin 43). This excerpt shows how Edna's actions started to change. This reflects her effort to create a new identity. A similar search for identity exists in John Updike's "A&P". In "A&P", the main character Sammy is a cashier at his local A&P. He is used to the daily customers and the boring workloads. So, when he sees three girls in bathing suits, his day became more interesting. When his boss scrutinized the three young ladies, Sammy had an identity crisis. He did something that he normally would not do—he quit. In that instant, he didn’t want to be associated with his boss's principles. Sammy longs to do something that matters, when he finally quits these thoughts come to mind: "I know that's true, too, but remembering how he …show more content…
Written in the late 1800's, Kate Chopin's The Awakening was controversial at the time. In a society based around gender rules and class, this story's setting has an impact on theme. Main character, Edna, experiences a sense of non-belonging here, "A feeling of oppression and drowsiness overcame Edna during the service" (Chopin 28). Edna is not accepted by her society because she does not want to live the same life as women her age. The quote provided allows the readers to see the feelings Edna has while in public. Due to pressures put on by society at this time, Edna feels rejected. Like Edna, "A&P"'s Sammy felt forced to do something because of common thoughts in society. Sammy's boss, Lengel, felt it was not right for the three girls to be distracting his customers in their bathing suits. Sammy had the opposite opinion, because his actions proved so. Sammy explains, "A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct" (Updike 58). He is saying that people were not used to seeing that in a grocery store. Sammy acted for something that others thought was crude, which is