Living things all experience a period at which they face serious growth and development. People are no exception to the rule and even have their very own process of growing and developing. Humans have more sense of sentiment and feelings of emotion that they develop as they grow. Their growth and development stems beyond just physical development. John Updike, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gwendolyn Brooks all capture such experiences in the stories “A & P”, “Bernice, Bobs Her Hair”, and “We Real Cool”. The stories define maturation as attempting to find one’s self, pushing the limits on what is acceptable in society, and living with the consequences of hard decisions made.
In all three stories, the main characters all have an idea of who they would like to be. In “A & P”, our character, Sammie, quickly falls for a young girl he calls Queenie. Almost immediately, Sammie begins to…show more content… Everyone has found this to be true in some instance in their life. Sammie, in “A & P”, quits his job on the spot. Almost immediately, he feels the impacts of his actions in guilt. “He’s been a friend of my parents for years.” referring to Lengel, so this means Sammy will have to explain himself to his parents and possibility face punishment. This could also affect his life long term as Lengel’s words foreshadow when he says, “You’ll feel this for the rest of your life.” and Sammy agrees.(3) Bernice faces consequences with cutting her hair. She receives a lukewarm reception when she cuts her hair, and she must wait for her hair to grow back. Also, she faces consequences in cutting her cousin Marjorie’s hair while she is sleeping to get revenge. This action may cause a rift in their relationship and she has to own up to her actions. The characters in the poem fall into risky behavior that could have serious effects, effects as serious as death as the writer suggests in the last