John Updike

2 Pages 576 Words

Updike: A Premiere Chronicler of Middle America in all its Mundane Glory
The novels, short stories, and poetry of John Updike are typically known for being about everyday life in the American middle class. He writes realistic fiction; stories that are credible because they are written about everyday people in everyday situations. These are stories that normal people can relate to; stories about people like them. There is also a focus on some sort of “moral dilemma” that the character and the reader must deal with. Both the character and the reader have to decide what is morally right and wrong under particular circumstances. Updike’s story “A & P” is a good representation of his overall work; it is a story about an everyday kid living in middle class America that struggles with the world’s values versus his own.
It is said that Updike’s short stories illustrate his “deep affection for everyday life in all its banality” (Hedblad 379). The entire scenario in “A & P” is exceedingly ordinary. An average teenager works as a check out clerk in a small town grocery store and has an uptight boss. This is not exactly and extraordinary concept; it is normal; it is ‘everyday.’ “Updike’s Fiction is deeply informed by a kind of moral realism….that is rooted in an understanding of the dailiness of life…” (Thorburn 4). There is not one character in “A & P” that does not represent a typical person that one could run into on the street in their very own town; from Sammy, the clerk, to the “sheep” in the store. All of his characters are regular middle class people. There are no rich snobby people or dirt poor people. “Updike is considered a premiere chronicler of middle America in all its mundane glory” (Hedblad 375).
Updike is also famous for creating a theme in his stories which is meant to be a “moral dilemma” and create “moral debates with the reader” (Schopen 525). In “A...