Didi Park

Miller

English 11

October 23 2013

More than pretty?

John Updike’s “A & P”

“With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of

her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the

shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean, it was more than

pretty. (205)”

“… more than pretty.” What does that mean? What’s the “more”? I struggle to

understand the relationship between the narrator and the girl “Queenie”; the extent to

which his attraction is sexual and what it means, what it signifies in the bigger picture of

the narrator’s world. He describes her appearance with such detail in a way that strikes

me as odd. “clean bare plane” and “dented sheet of metal tilted in the light” (205-206)

make me think of something rigid and perfect – hardly sexual. I’m not sure what to make

of it, not sure what to make of the juxtaposition of this rigid elegance with the color of

her swimsuit. Earlier in the passage he describers her bathing suit as “a kind of dirty-pink

– beige maybe … with a little nubble all over it” (205). The words “dirty” and “nubble”

stand out to me because they don’t seem to match the perfection and prettiness that is

later used to describe her. There’s something visceral about this description because it

doesn’t seem to conform to any of the tropes I’m used to reading. There’s ambiguity to

this – what does “dirty-pink – beige” connote? Again, it’s hardly sexual. But while the

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connotations may be ambiguous, the denotations are not: I can see her, as she isn’t

something recycled. I’ve never seen her before. And while I can see her, the visual

descriptiveness just makes it more difficult to parse. I am presented with images and

feelings, but am not sure what to make of them. I can’t label any ideas; I can’t put my

feelings into words. There’s a frosted glass wall between the story and me.

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