Coming of Age in Boys and Girls, A&P

In both stories, "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro, and "A&P" written by John Updike have instances in which there is a sense of maturity, and making their own decisions. For "A&P", at the end of the story, Sammy quits his job because he believes that Lengel embarrassed the three girls, Sammy states "You didn't have to embarrass them."speaking to Lengel. This leads Sammy to quit his job, as he says "Their unsuspecting hero" in defense of the way Lengel handled the situation with the girls. Sammy also says at the end "I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." As it seems Sammy realizes here that it's going to be an uphill battle as the world was cold. It's admirable of Sammy to defend the girls but he gets nothing in return, and even loses his job. Now, for "Boys and Girls". The little eleven year old girl grows up a bit when she lets Flora, their horse, run out of the gate to freedom. They live on fox farm and use the meant from the horses to feed the foxes that are on their farm. When the horse began running around, it headed toward the gate. The eleven year old describes this as "Instead of shutting the gate, I opened it as wide as I could. I did not make any decision to do this, it was just what I did. Flora never slowed down; she galloped straight past me, and Laird jumped up and down, yelling, "Shut it, shut it!" even after it was too late." She elected to choose to save the horses life rather than help provide food for the foxes on the farm. This shows that she is taking a stance against the job that her father does, of killing the horses for the foxes to feed on. Even though that is most likely how they receive their home income. This may not have been the smartest choice, but it is only one horse, and her father forgives her at the end of the story, saying "she's only a girl". Indicating that he can't be mad at her for this.