A&P by john Updike
Write two paragraphs. In the first paragraph, Summarize the story “and accurately present the key characters and events.” In the second, you will compare your summary to the story itself and determine “how much of the story comes through in your summary.” In your comparison, you should include specific aspects of the story that are described in your summary, and aspects that “disappear” from your version.
This is an important exercise because many student writers when writing about literature, make the mistake of simply re-telling the story without offering any analysis or evaluation of the text. As the textbook points out, it is important to always consider aspects of the plot when writing about literature, but it is also important to realize that simply summarizing a plot does not always accurately convey the important aspects of the story.
