John Updike and Kurt Vonnegut both weave social commentary into their short stories. In "A&P," Updike focuses on the dehumanizing elements of menial jobs such as the bag-boy job occupied by the story's protagonist Sammy. Sammy is coming of age; he has finished high school and is taking his first steps in the real working world. His budding sexuality and personal identity clashes with the demands and expectations of a rigid small-town culture. The norms and values Sammy encounters while working at the A&P market, culminating in the mistreatment of the teenage girls, provide a means for Sammy to question his ethical principles and act accordingly. By quitting, Sammy becomes a postmodern hero: he is filled with realism and cynicism. Harrison Bergeron in Vonnegut's short story by the same name is a different type of tragic hero. Also a teenager filled with the desire to change outmoded social norms, Harrison becomes a type of postmodern monster who seeks to subvert a tyrannical American government. In their short stories both Updike and Vonnegut depict American society as being characterized by mediocrity. Through their young male protagonists the authors critique the pursuit of average.
             However different their setting and pot, "A&P" and "Harrison Bergeron" are quintessential postmodern American tales. The heroes are disillusioned young males who, because of their raging hormones and egos believe they can single-handedly change the world. Vonnegut and Updike show, from the climaxes and endings used in their respective stories, that the dreams and ambitions of youth like Sammy and Harrison are inevitably shattered by an American society bent on squelching creativity and uniqueness. Especially in "Harrison Bergeron," the theme of the story is society's commitment to abject mediocrity. One of the key differences between the two stories is that unlike Updike, Vonnegut deliberately and purposefully portrays the American government as a culpr...