...every month two million americans willingly quit their job. Sammy is part of that statistic. Sammy is the impulsive, rebellious, nineteen year old narrator in the short story “A&P”. While working the A&P checkout line in his small town, he displays several qualities which make an intriguing character. Sammy fears responsibility. He shows this through teasing older, authoritative, coworkers. Additionally by his need for his mother to iron his shirt the night before, as well as how dependent he was on his parents to even receive the job. Sammy is also a adolescent with a healthy interest in the opposite sex and has a keen observational sense.This is apparent when he closely notices details of the young ladies bodies...
Words: 551 - Pages: 3
...The narrator and main character of A&P, by John Updike, is Sammy. He is 19 years old and works as a cashier in an A&P grocery store. The story Sammy discusses is quite uncommon and takes place on a summer afternoon in Massachusetts. Sammy is a very observing character and seems to enjoy unordinary things. Sammy is an typical cashier working at a typical store in the beginning of the story. He begins to change when the three girls in bathing suits walk into A&P. The others in the store are not pleased with the three girls’ attires. Sammy, however, is amused and enjoyed watching the others react to the girls’ attire. Trying to make a statement, Sammy quits his job. He sees most people in his area as “sheep” and “scared little pigs in a chute”...
Words: 259 - Pages: 2
...aspect Updike might represented his personal experience or someone else experience in “A & P,” when Sammy find himself thinking about Queenie’s life style. “All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. (193) Sammy in a way envisions her regular life at home in a way I might personally do if I wonder about an individual....
Words: 491 - Pages: 2
...Reader-Response to John Updike’s “A&P” “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad,” he tells me. It’s true, I don’t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it (323). This statement made by Sammy after quitting his job, was made towards the end of John Updike’s story “A&P”. Sammy had quit his job, a job that his parents helped him to get. Sammy opened up a whole new world; a world that I don’t think Sammy was ready for. He made a quick and irrational decision, rather if it affected his life or not we would never know. One could make the assumption that yes he was affected, because he possibly brought shame to his parents. With it being a small town word gets around fast a there is a chance that Sammy wouldn’t be able to find a job any other place because of how he had quit he job prior. Sammy labeled the people whom were in the store as “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (321), as in how people were expected to act in society, being constrained, unable to be yourself. Sammy was different; he was an adolescent male who was just trying to find his way through life. A life where he wasn’t familiar with, he was socially inept and lacked a good education as you can tell from the language he used. Life was just about to change for Sammy. John Updike’s story teaches us that we don’t always have to have good reasons for the choices we make. Some of the choices we make are strictly based on our feelings and beliefs...
Words: 1029 - Pages: 5
...Each with responsibilities, rules and lessons to be learned and mistakes will be made under the watchful eye of an employer. In John Updike’s “A & P,” Sammy is the typical teenager bored with his job. He’s at a small town grocery store that does not get a lot of excitement. He mentally analyzes each customer as he goes through the motions of cashing out each customer. This day will change Sammy’s life and his lack of understanding of it. Sammy notices, “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (141). The girls move throughout the store creating quite the stir. Eventually the girls make their way to Sammy’s register. The manager, Lengel, approaches the girls, “‘Girl’s this isn’t the...
Words: 474 - Pages: 2
...The Truth About Adulthood Remember when we were young and dreamt of the day we entered the world of adolescence. So eager to experience the sweet taste of independence that is, till reality came knocking on the door. It is the breakthrough from childhood to adolescence that was captured as the theme in John Updike’s story A &P and James Joyce’s “Araby”. The use of imagery to describe the lifeless and ordinary setting made it clear to distinguish the characters desire to overcome the barriers of childhood. The story of “Araby” begins at a dead end street where the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle. He describes the short days of winter and mentions, “The space of sky above us was the color of ever-changing violet (107).” He is expressing the continuous change that comes along with getting older, just like the ever changing skies, this feeling of continuous change is something the narrator has no power over and is frustrating to him. To represent the initiation into adulthood and the loss of child like dreams the narrator describes the street where the boys play: “The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes…to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens… to the dark odorous (107). It seems as though where ever the boy goes darkness follows, representing a dreadful feeling of growing up. Passing through to adolescence comes with the crushing of dreams and illusions. In addition to the point on desire to enter adulthood, when in class the narrator...
Words: 843 - Pages: 4
...John Updike's short story "A&P" is about a teenager who has to make a serious decision. The story is set in an A&P supermarket in a town north of Boston, probably about the year 1960. As the plot unfolds, Sammy changes from being a thoughtless and sexist boy to being a young man who can make a decision, even though it might hurt him. Sammy tells us he is nineteen years old. He is a check-out clerk in the local A&P, where the boss, Lengel, is a friend of Sammy's parents. Sammy does not seem to like his job very much. He calls one of his customers a "witch" and says the other customers are "houseslaves" and "sheep." He himself comes from a middle-class family. When they have a party, he says, they serve "lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with 'They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stencilled on" (15). In addition, Sammy is sexist. He gives long, loving descriptions of the girls who cause all the trouble, and he thinks at first that girls may not even have minds, asking, "do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?" (13) However, he does change as the plot goes on. The plot of the story deals with three girls who come into the store dressed only in bathing suits. They make their entrance in the very first sentence, and they complicate Sammy's life. At first, Sammy, his older friend Stokesie, and McMahon the butcher all look at the girls lustfully. But of them all, only Sammy enjoys...
Words: 636 - Pages: 3
...“A & P” by John Updike takes place in 1961, in a small New England town's A&P grocery store. Sammy, the narrator, is introduced as a grocery checker and an observer of the store's patrons. He finds himself fascinated by a particular group of girls. Just in from the beach and still in their bathing suits, they are a stark contrast, to the otherwise plain store interior. As they go about their errands, Sammy observes the reactions, of the other customers, to this trio of young women. He uses the word "Sheep" to describe the store regulars, as they seem to follow one and other, in their actions and reactions. The girls, however, appear to be unique in all aspects of their beings: walking, down the isles, against the grain: going barefoot and in swim suits, amongst the properly attired clientele. They are different and this is what catches and holds Sammy's attention. He sees them in such detail, that he can even see the queen of the bunch. Sammy observes their movements and gestures, up until the time of their checkout. At which point, they are confronted by the store manager and chastised for their unacceptable appearance. He believes their attire to be indecent. Sammy, feeling that the managerial display was unnecessary and unduly embarrassing for the girls, decides to quit his position as checker. Thought he knows that his decision may be hasty, he knows that he has to follow through and he can never go back. He leaves, with a clean conscious, but the burden of not...
Words: 1481 - Pages: 6
...Coming of Age “A & P” John Updike’s short story, A & P discusses a simple conflict resolved with a quick and definitive action. The story focuses on its main character; Sammy who has an epiphany when he realizes a line has been crossed while working his summer job. Updike’s story teaches us of a young and relatable man who will stand up for what he believes. The story starts of with Sammy describing three young girls that catch his eye as they walk into the store. “There was this chunky one, with the two-piece- it was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp and her belly was still pretty pale so I guessed she just got it (the suit)- there was this one, with one of those chubby berry –faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose, this one, and a tall one, with black hair that hadn’t quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes”… “And then the third one, that wasn’t quite so tall. She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn’t look around, not this queen” (320). When Sammy is describing these girls, he is really only describing one girl in particular. “She had on a kind of dirty-pink- beige, maybe, I don’t know- bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down” (321). Sammy sees these young women in such detail. He observes their every move, up until the time of their checkout. It is at this point, that the store manager...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...Although I agree with the previous answer that the internal conflict is significant in "A & P," I disagree with the characterization of Updike's portrayal of Sammy. Yes, as the story concludes, Sammy does think about "how hard the world was going to be to [him] hereafter," but is that necessarily a bad thing? While on the one hand, Sammy's decision to quit could be perceived as an impulsive and illogical decision, it could also represent Sammy's break from conformity and a realization that standing up for what one believes and going against societal norms is difficult. Right now he's standing up for girls who come into a grocery store in bathing suits (in 1961 when everyday dress was nowhere near as casual as it is today), and he sees himself as the girls' "unsuspected hero." But this small step could mean that he was always stand up for himself in the future and will no longer see the world as quite so black and white. Much of the beauty in this story lies in the way it beckons us to think about what the future might hold for nineteen-year-old Sammy. Walter Wells, in his critical essay, “John Updike’s ‘A & P’: A Return Visit to Araby" (available on e-notes) calls Sammy's epiphany "ambiguous." Yes, Sammy does look forward to an uncertain future, and Wells also reminds us that Sammy's action was spurred by his libido (would he have been as chilvalrous if one of the girls other than Queenie was being reprimanded?), but it is nonetheless a decision that he thinks about and...
Words: 323 - Pages: 2
...John Updike’s “A&P” as a provocative tale of social perception In order to understand the two stories on John Updike’s “A&P”, the characters have to hold the weight of being the most important theme in the short story. The first set of characters consists of Sammy, the Girls, and Lengel who all dictate the first short story from Sammy’s point of view. The second of the two tales Updike pens about in this short, is that of where he makes us question what being “decent” by society’s current standards means, by putting an emphasis on perception and almost spoon-feeding us readers to pick up on what he’s trying to imply by using Sammy to illustrate it all. The paper-thin storyline consisting of what Sammy is going through by narrating and the other, which is the main story being Sammy and the girls representing freedom and non-conformity from a neutral point of view versus what Lengel, the shoppers, and the storefront itself represent as being the socially correct status quo and policy we hold as normal living in society. In this story the establishment that is the A&P itself, is portrayed as routine and monotonous as a market in the middle of town can possibly be. Updike made it so on purpose, to give us a neutral setting that synonymous with our reality and what we perceive as normal behavior in society. The A&P is acceptable as a run-of-the-mill chain market, this character represents the status quo of a 1st world society where one is judged instantly for behaving...
Words: 901 - Pages: 4
...Xavian Arnold Dr. Patterson English 112 28 March 2012 A & P: An Analysis of the Character “Sammy” As people age, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experience. From the time a child turns eighteen and becomes an adult, they are required to deal with the realities of the real world and learn how to handle its responsibilities. In John Updike’s short story “A&P” the protagonist Sammy is a young man in 1961 New England who works in the town’s local grocery store. In a matter of a day, Updike goes from an immature boy with unrealistic ideas and fantasies, to a man who is about to realize how life altering the choices he makes can be. Sammy realizes that life isn’t always fair and that sometimes it involves the consequences that life can deal to anyone who has not had time to test a rash decision. Updike’s story illustrates that a part of growing up is a willingness to accept consequences of one’s choices, and that life's hardest lessons are sometimes learned a little too late. This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy, as seen through his evaluations of the costumers as the story develops. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of Sammy’s growth. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he only notices the physical appearance of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only thoughts. As the story...
Words: 1114 - Pages: 5
...John Updike “A & P” We were asked in class to write a short paper after being asked the question, “What is the most intriguing or interesting piece we have read, and why?” My response to this question was John Updike’s “A & P”. “A & P” was not the best or even the most interesting piece that I have read. However, out of all of the stories that I have read for this class, “A & P” left me with the most questions. Some of the questions that I asked myself after reading this story were, “What did Updike want me to get from this story?” The second question I asked myself was, “Was there any symbolism or foreshadowing in the extreme amount of detail that Updike used in this story?” The last question that I wanted to answer was, “Is that it?” Did John Updike really write a story about dress code of a supermarket? Or, did he write this story about the moral dilemma a young clerk faces when he believes his boss was rude to three underdressed girls? John Updike’s “A & P” was first published in 1962. This story took place in a small grocery store. The main character, Sammy, is a young clerk. He is ringing up a lady whom he describes as a “witch”, when three young ladies enter the store wearing nothing but bathing suits. Updike uses great detail in describing the three girls. The first one that he noticed was described as “a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit…”...
Words: 1597 - Pages: 7
... 2010 Eng 2510: Contemporary Literature Conflict and Change in John Updike’s “A&P” All of the events in John Updike’s short story “A&P” take place in a small town grocery store north of Boston, where Sammy, the main character, works as cashier. Sammy is nineteen, a late adolescent boy on the verge of adulthood. His fellow cashier, Stokesie, is twenty-two, married, with two young children. The store is managed by a much older man named Lengel, a friend of Sammy’s parents. The other characters include a customer at Sammy’s checkout slot and three teenage girls in bathing suits. It is an altercation in the aisles of the store between Lengel, the manager, and the three girls that forces Sammy to face his inner conflict and make a life changing decision. Updike implies rather than spells out Sammy’s conflict. Sammy is nineteen, almost a man, but as yet without a man’s responsibilities. If Sammy stays in town, we can easily imagine he will soon be in the same situation as Stokesie, who has wife and two children to take care of. Sammy and Stokesie have good jobs, probably among the best the small town has to offer. If Stokesie were to quit his job, he would be abdicating his responsibilities and letting his family down. In the view of the town, such an action would probably be considered madness. For him, the chance to make a radical change in his life’s course has probably passed. Sammy, on the other hand, has a window of opportunity, a short period between...
Words: 999 - Pages: 4
... The short story “A&P” by John Updike takes place within a grocery store with plots depicting different themes, such as innocence and irony. The average reader will be stunned by the unusual break in tradition, as well as the ending with a twist. Sammy, the story’s main character and narrator, is represented as one who does not understand his own troubled life. He also despises others, who in so many words live a life of follow the leader. Ultimately, Sammy quits his job in protest of the unfair treatment of three girls, who have presumably violated the store’s dress code policy. It appears that this is an example where society is being too rigid and insensitive to the changing trends that our younger generations are ready to explore. Three young girls wearing bathing suits into a small town grocery store really caused a commotion amongst the store’s...
Words: 1168 - Pages: 5
