Rules And Regulations In John Updike's A & P

Working in retail can be stressful and unfulfilling because of the environments and customers that you interact with. In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, a young boy is easily distracted at his job as a cashier because of the unfulfillment it leaves him as a worker but nevertheless he still abides by the rules in places of the job. The cashier finds frustration in the rules required of him while working. Lengel holds everyone accountable including the customers that come in to shop to meet his standards of conformity. Enforcement of rules and regulations has its way of bringing excessive control to a manager. Although A&P has many themes and multiple cases of imagery the most prevalent concept in the story is conformity because of the importance it has in shaping the events that occur. The cashier is clearly bothered by the demanding regulations he must follow while working. When ringing up a customer he describes a situation “I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up not. I ring it up and the customer starts giving me hell, She’s one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbone and no eyebrows and I know …show more content…
When he returns inside the store from handling the truck of cabbages, he addresses the group of girls who are being rang out at Sammy’s register. “Girls, this isn’t the beach” Lengel speaks to them initially. Queenie, the lead of the girls explains her sole purpose of coming into A&P is to make a purchase for her mother. “We weren’t doing any shopping. We just came in for the one thing” she continues to explain to the manager. Lengel is not impressed by her response “That makes no difference...We want you decently dressed when you come in here”. (Updike 834) Lengel demands regulations to be followed by any and everyone who steps foot into A&P, giving no leeway even to quick