Different Paths to Coming of Age

1482 Words6 Pages
Different paths to coming of age The short story “A&P” by John Updike is about the coming of age of Sammy, a 19-year-old cashier at a mini mart near Boston. The short story “Jinx” by Aimee Bender is also about the coming of age of its protagonists, two 16-years-old teenagers. In both stories, the main characters mature. However, from a comparative standpoint the process in which the characters mature in each story is very different. While in A&P Sammy matures by choosing to become different, the girls on Jinx mature by simply growing older and having different interests which cause them to drift apart. Coming of age maybe a different experience for everyone, it can happen through gaining new knowledge or suffering disillusionment, it can also happen by the loss of a sense of security, the loss of innocence, or when childhood preconceptions are dropped and a false view of the world is replaced by the correct view. These two stories provide good examples of characters taking very different paths towards maturity. Sammy is 19-years-old grocery store employee in a small blue-collar town; he lives with his parents and has a boring job in a quite depressive environment. Although Sammy works which exposes him to the world of grownups he still shows great signs of immaturity. The story is told in the first person with Sammy describing a day in his life, through his thoughts readers are able to see Sammy maturing as the story unwinds. Sammy shows an acute sense of observation and great attention to details. He uses sarcastic tone and refers to some inhabitants of his town as witch, buns and free loaders, placing him in a superior position to them. By also referring to customers in the store as “sheep pushing their carts down the aisles” (261), and “a few house slaves in pin curlers” (261), Sammy expresses his awareness and dissatisfaction with the customers at his

More about Different Paths to Coming of Age

Open Document