Choices Will Stay With You

The stories, "A & P" by John Updike, "Rites of Passage" by Sharon Olds, and "The One Girl at the Boy's Party" by Sharon Olds, all show different challenges and situations that young people will become faced with. The choices that the young people make within these stories, shows what kind of person he or she will be in the future and if he or she will become sheep like, meaning following the norm. The stories are all based on different stages in a young person's life. "Rites of Passage," is based on the child stage, ages six and seven, "The One Girl at the Boy's Party," is based on the puberty or maturing stage, most likely teenage years, and "A & P," is based on the young adult stage, late teenage years or early twenties. The outcome of these young people's choices is important to thier future and growing up.

In the story "A & P," the main character, Sammy is a young adult, faced with the challenge to stand up and defend the three girls in bathing suits. Sammy believes that Lengel was embarrassing the three girls, and instead of keeping his mouth shut, he decides to quit his job in thier defence. Sammy realizes that he quit his job for nothing, because the girls were not outside and the customers were still shopping and checking out as if nothing had ever happened. Aslo, Sammy has now embarrassed his parents and he will be known as quitter in his small town. But, Sammy showed that he was not a sheep, because he stood up for what he believed at the time was the right thing to do. Unlike Sammy, the son in "Rights of Passage," does however change the way people think and ressolves the issue. In "Rites of Passage," the lady's son's situation arises at his birthday party. His friends were arguing who could beat up whom, and were not paying any attention to the fact that it was her son's birthday. The lady's son decides to stop the arguing and fighting. He makes the boys all agree, by announcing that they could all beat up two year olds. Now that the boys all agreed, they could focus on playing and celebrating her son's birthday. This shows that he will become a different knid of man, and will not be a sheep, meaning a follower; instead he will be a leader. Although, "A & P" and "Rites of Passage," show examples of not being sheep like, by standing up to somebody, there are however, other ways of not being sheep like. This example is in the poem, "The One Girl at the Boy's Party." The daughter is at an all boys pool party, therefore she is considered not to be a sheep, because she is the only there, of the opposite sex. This poem, deals with the situation of loosing virginity or at least the temptation of it. At the beginning of the poem, the author describes the girl as though she is a prime number, meaning that she is innocent and pure. The boys surround her and watch her, as though she is a piece of meat for them to eat. The parent describes the daughter as being overwhelmed by the boys. The daughter is doing math problems in her head throughout the poem, which leads to the fact that she may not be a prime number anymore. The parent comes to the realization that the daughter is coming of age, and that she is faced with the challenge of whather to be pure or not. Also, this relates to being a sheep, will she stay a virgin and not be a sheep, or will she loose her virginity and become a sheep, like everybody else? The author leaves the reader with the impression that the daughter is tempted to not be a virgin anymore. Therefore, the mainpoints in these stories are similar, even though the main points are expressed in different situations.

In "A & P," Sammy was a sheep, and then he decides that he does not want to be a sheep anymore and quits his job. In "Rites of Passage," the son shows that he will not ne a sheep, and instead he will lead. In "The One Girl at the Boy's Party," the author shows that the daughter was not a sheep, but she will soon become one, by loosing her virginity. The first main point of these stories, is to show that some people are followers, some people can change things and become leaders, and others will stand up for what they believe in, it does not matter if they are right or wrong. The other main point of these stories is to show that the decisions these young people make will stay with them in the future.

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