Adults and children differences in perception

Both accounts reveal manifestations of as well as social classes. More precisely, there is an example of adults seeing children differently than children viewing adults. While children are worried about their own and their parents’ position in the contemporary world, adults are concerned about how their children experience themselves and their surroundings. Changes arise as the infant reaches puberty as well as he or she enters adulthood. Ideally, children are caught by the demands of various age classes surrounding them. In this essay, there is a demonstration that there is a significant difference between the perceptions of adults with that of youngsters.

Dress Codes and Society’s Expectations

In the first case, the narrator, who is an attendant in A&P store asserts that he likes women customers that are attractive. While doing it, he makes mistakes including ringing HiHo crackers, making him be in conflict with the attendant of the cash register who monitors him (356). In the narration, he talks about beautiful girls that entered have a unique dress code that was highly attractive. “The chunky one had a bright-green two piece with sharp seams on the bra while the other one had a chubby berry face with lips bunched together under her nose. The tall one had oaky hair which had not frizzed right while the most beautiful of all (Queenie) had a long chin which made other girls stick around her. Queenie walked on bare feet and moved her body rhythmically. She wore a bathing suit that exposed her bare shoulders. The speaker asserts that her presence made his stomach rub inside his apron. However, when they were walking around, the adult shopper could not believe their eyes (Smith and Hart 357).The married man was eager to see the girls served for them to get out of the store as soon as possible (358).The primary issue with the girls was their dress code did not conform to the expectations of adults. The attire was for the beach and given that the store was in North Boston, which is significantly far from the beach, the young girls were not expected to be dressed in such manner. However, according to the speaker, women that are expected to dress in a respectable manner as stipulated by the societal codes are primarily those with six children and varicose veins on their legs.

Conflicting Perspectives on Dress Code

All that the narrator considers cute is perceived to be unethical dress code according to Lengel, the manager of the A&P store. The manager did not relent from criticizing the girls openly because of their appearance, ”girls, this is not the beach“ but the girls responded innocently, expecting the manager to understand their youthful dressing. ”My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks“ (Smith and Hart 358). While the girls claimed that they were descent in their attire, Lengel opposed it with an assertion that their dressing suggested otherwise. He was subjective in his speech, emphasizing that he was not going to argue about the appropriate dressing when going to the stores. ”Come in with shoulders covered. Kingpins want covered upholding covering of shoulders as a policy and failure to do it accounts to juvenile delinquency“ (Smith and Hart 359). What is more, while Sammy thought that telling them off was embarrassing the customers, Lengel claimed that it is the girls that were embarrassing A&P Store.

Financial Status and Priorities

In the second case, at the toy store, the children learned that the world has different classes of people with priorities that vary significantly. For example, some parents can buy their children toys selling at high prices. Sylvia cannot believe that a toy of a somersaulting clown can cost 35 dollars and a sailboat for 1000 dollars (Smith and Hart 638). What children from poor backgrounds can make at home at a low cost can be bought at a high price by rich parents. The speaker asserts that he can make a toy using a tube of glue costing a dime, and a ball of string going for eight cents ”My sailboat cost me about fifty cents“ (Smith and Hart 637). More so, parents from rich families become worried when their children spoil or lose the cheap toys given to them. For example, Flyboy claims that when her toy sank in Alley Pond Park, her father wailed (Smith and Hart 637).

Financial Status and Pursuit of Happiness

The children also learned that there is a positive correlation between the financial status of a family and their priorities. The financially strapped ones have lower priorities on luxuries such as toys and vice versa. For example, Sugar asserts that the annual consumption of all of them is lower than the cost of the sailboat. She concludes that the society is not equal because people do not have an equal chance of pursuing happiness. While others are willing to pursue luxuries with a lot of money, others search for the cheapest alternatives of basic needs. ”Well, we got four dollars. We can go to Hascombs and buy half a chocolate layer, go to the Sunset with it but remain with money to buy ice-cream sodas and potato chips“( Smith and Hart 638)

Conclusion

In conclusion, in the first case, the children learned that there are different classes in the society and every class spends money on things differently. While the poor look for ways to cut their costs, the rich can spend a lot of money on things that the poor can acquire cheaply. In the second case, the speaker asserts that adults can disagree with youngsters about dress code. The attire that the youths perceive as fashionable can conflict with the expectations of the adults, and such nonconformance makes the adults worried.

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Works Cited

Smith, Elliott L, and Andrew W. Hart. The Short Story, a Contemporary Looking-Glass. New York: Random House, 1981. Print.