A Comparison Of Change In A & P And Raymond Carver's Cathedral

John Updike’s “A&P” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” contain main characters who experience an unexpected change in the way they view the world from people that they’ve formed a stereotype of. In “A&P”, Sammy, the main character, is influenced by three young girls while in “Cathedral”, the husband, is influenced by Robert to bring out this change in them. In both texts, the objects for change are similar in that the narrators viewed them negatively, they unexpectedly came in to the narrator’s lives, and they represent a way of escape from the closed world the characters live in. In John Updike’s “A&P”, three teenage girls walk into a grocery store wearing only bathing suits. The narrator Sammy, a 19-year-old boy who works as a cashier in a grocery …show more content…
He envies their looks and notices every detail about them, but he focuses most on one of the girls. Queenie is what he calls her. She appears to be the leader of the group and very attractive. Stokesie, a coworker of Sammy, notices the girls too and begin joking around with Sammy about them. Sammy feels that he and Stokesie are alike, but differentiate in that he is still young and single whereas Stokesie is older and married. He starts to feel that he doesn’t want to end up like Stokesie and work still work at A&P in the future when he is much older. He begins to pity his coworkers who are all checking out the girls for having to settle for less working there. As the girls are in Sammy’s checkout lane, Lengel, the store manager approach them and comments on their attire, citing the store policy. This embarrasses the girl and Queenie argues back that her mother wanted her to come purchase herring snacks. When she said that, Sammy determines her