A&P and Other Stories Lesson Plan

How does the culture of American consumerism appear in "A & P"?

The story is not set in an excessively luxurious place—an average, "crummy," small-town grocery store—yet it still presents a critique of the rampant American consumerism of the Cold War era. One of the ways Updike introduces this idea is through Sammy's perception of the customers as "sheep." They are dumbly walking down the aisles, simply accepting the choices set before them. Another way he does this is by emphasizing the artificiality of the food choices. For example, when he states that the girls went up the...