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John Updike’s short story “A & P” is an intriguing story about a young adolescent, Sammy, working as a cashier at an A&P store. The story details how the young man is not satisfied with how the manger treats three females who walk into the store to buy herring snacks. The story leaves the reader to interpret the meaning as the story is ended with a cliffhanger. In the end the cashier quits because of his obsession with three women.
Updike first revels the Sammy’s obsession with the three girls by explaining how he makes a mistake ringing up an older lady. “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits… I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo cracks trying to remember if I rang it up or not” (Updike 641). The author conveys a reaction of anybody who notices three women. Whenever a man sees three striking women, it usually ends with the man forgetting what he was doing.
Updike portrays Sammy’s obsession by noting how he kept trying to spot the girls in the bathing suits and how Sammy wanted them to come to his lane. “The store’s pretty empty, it being Thursday afternoon, so there was nothing much to do except lean on the register and wait for the girls to show up again. The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they’d come out of” (Updike 643). Obviously Sammy is waiting to spot the women again, another example of how he is obsessing over them. It is one thing for a man to take two glances at a woman, but usually when a man is waiting to see a woman for a third time, it is because he has taken interest in her.
Eventually, the manager, Lengel, spots the girls and reminds them that they are not on the beach. The girls try to protest and say that they just have to get one item, but the manager persists and the two sides begin to argue. At this point, Sammy was content but now he begins to feel compelled to defend the women, and ultimately hope that they will notice him. As the girls...