Cathedral

John Updike has seemed to use what has happened throughout his life in his stories. “Updike has received several awards, among them Guggenheim Fellow (1959), Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1959), National Book Award in Fiction (1964), O. Henry Prize (1967-68), American Book Award (1982), National Book Critics Circle Award, for fiction (1982, 1990), Union League Club Abraham Lincoln Award (1982), National Arts Club Medal of Honor (1984); National Medal of the Arts (1989). In 1976 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In November 2003 Updike received the National Medal for Humanities at the White House, joining a very small group of notables who have been honored with both the National Medal of Art and the National Medal for the Humanities. His novels Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest have won Pulitzer Prizes.”(http://www.enotes.com)

When the 3 bathing suit clad girls’ first walk in the A&P, Sammy sees them and just immediately starts to observe them with his eyes, so much so that he completely forgets what he is doing. What he was supposed to be doing was being a check-out clerk at the A & P grocery store. He had been in the process of checking out a grumpy old lady who catches him making a mistake. He accidentally scanned one of her items twice and she had been watching his every move and then gave him hell for it.

In this part of the story, Mr. Updike is showing us a compelling story about how a young teenage boy growing up in a small town, has a lot more on his mind than his menial part-time job. When the 3 girls walk in the store with only their bathing suits on, his male hormones kick in when he describes how they are dressed. It seems as though he may almost start to drool. For example, he describes one of the girls; “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of her legs.” (Updike, 1492) He is observing what any typical male would, noticing the girl’s ass!

As the girls continued on their route to find pickled herring, Sammy begins to describe details of the other two girls, sizing them all up. Two followers and their leader, he gave her a name; Queenie. “She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round.” (Updike, 1493) Mr. Updike it seems was setting up his main character, Sammy, to begin having a great fondness for the one he liked, the one that stood out to him. As he saw it, she was his type, even though they had never met.

“You never know for sure how girls’ minds work (do you really think it is a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?)”(Updike, 1493). SammyвЂ?s male chauvinistic attitude is very surprising, possibly he has heard that attitude from his own father, or maybe