The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives forever. -John Updike (b. 1932), U.S. author, critic. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs, ch. 1 (1989)- Innocence is a quality that is often taken for granted and abused. We never know when we lose it and it is seemingly gone forever. We are ignorant of our innocence until we realize that it has left us. Innocence is not ignorance, however it lacks knowledge in the same manner. It is based more on naivety or rather, the lack of experience we have. In John Updike's "A&P" the innocent of a local grocery store break through their blindness and daily routines in order to shed some light onto part of reality th