This Amercian Life

I was driving to school yesterday morning when it was reported on the news of NPR that John Updike had died. I actually verbally expressed remorse. I haven't read a fraction of Updike's work, but I always read his reviews in the New Yorker (which I tend to buy at airport magazine shops- probably because I assume I use my 5- 7 hours of travel time to actually finish a whole issue - which makes me wonder how anyone can have a subscription to the New Yorker and actually have the time to read it cover-to-cover on a weekly basis, but this is really besides the point) UPDIKE! Yes, I was sad to hear he passed away, as it was in my senior year high school class, The Short Story, that I first read "A & P." It's really one of those first times where I felt like a story was written for me, and was able to illustrate my own thoughts and realizations of growing up- which I couldn't verbalize. This story is that verbalization. I often think back on the story, the young guy working in that A & P- and what he witnesses, and what he attempts to do- because it bleeds of truth. It's about rebellion, and it's about making personal choices that may not be accepted by the status quo- it's about the consequences of being an individual, about the often futility of martyrdom- but being young an naive enough to believe that one can change the quo. Or it's about a teenage boy trying to impress some girls. Either way, it hit home then and for something as simple as that, I was somber at the news of John Updike's passing.

One side note- I never had the chance to officially teach this story in any of my classes, but in one of my teaching classes I created a lesson plan for it. Just in case you were wondering~