Grow Up!

Grow up!

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word 'initiation' as: 'A ceremony, ritual, test, or period of instruction with which a new member is admitted to an organization or to knowledge.' Every man or woman has a story of initiation from his or her past. The stories of initiation are a point when a person finally grows up and learns something previously not known about them. The protagonists in the two short stories, "A & P" and "Greasy Lake", overcome their formerly adolescent personalities and realize that it is time for a drastic change in character.

The readers first meet the protagonist (Sammy) of "A & P" as young grocery cashier. Sammy, the narrator, feels that at the young age of nineteen he has life figured out. The story is told as a narrative; a presumably older man is looking back, with humor, at his younger self. When the three underdressed young women walk into the store, it is probably the first time that Sammy, or any other person in the store, has seen such vulgarity in a typically public scene. The dreaded manager of the store, Lengel, asks the three girls to show a little respect for the other customers by asking the girls to leave; Sammy feels this is an injustice! Sammy is initiated to the real world by making his first big decision. The narrator does not have the happy ending that he had hoped for, but he learns that if he does not change, he will have more problems accepting authority in the future.

The reader first meets the protagonist of "Greasy Lake" shortly after he has returned for summer break from his freshman year of college. The narrator and his two friends believe they are tough, overall bad guys. It becomes apparent from the beginning of the story that the young men come from very stable backgrounds, and are not from the mean streets. Many of their actions, which they believe to be tough, are rather immature and childish: throwing eggs at people's cars and riding up and down the main drag for all hours of the night. The narrator's first realization