Actions Explained by Biological Research

This was my first piece of the semester for Intro to Lit which I think went very well. This gave me an idea as to what was expected for the anaysis. I decided to do a "floor 3" anaylsis whcich required taking a bigger picture look at the story as well as an outside source. I related the main character's behavior to a potential lack of full brain development due to his adolescence:

In John Updike’s “A&P,” the teenage protagonist’s actions may be explained by biological research of brain development. According to the article, “Adolescence, Brain Development, and Legal Culpability,” by the American Bar Association, “One of the things that teenagers seem to do is to respond more strongly with gut response than they do with evaluating the consequences of what they’re doing” (2). Such compulsive behavior is demonstrated by Sammy’s quick response to the girls’ hurried exit as he blurts out, “‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear” (18). The way in which Updike has 19-year-old Sammy act is probable and consistent according to research that one’s brain does not reach the biological age of maturity until the early twenties. After Sammy’s, in his initial perspective, heroic gesture, he eventually realizes the consequences of his spontaneity as, “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me here-after” (19). Updike catches the accurate behavior of a teenage boy, according to the biological evidence that the brain of an adolescent has not fully developed, leading to Sammy’s strong gut response in an attempt to impress a girl in a two-piece.