Sammy was able to draw conclusions about the girls that were walking around the store such as calling one of the girls “the queen” just based on the way she looked and acted. Although not as detailed, while working I often look at the people who are shopping and draw conclusions such as what kind of job I think they have or how many kids I think they have. The final aspect that I can relate to is the part of the story where Sammy gets annoyed with his boss and quits. Sammy doesn’t like the way that his boss, Lengel, talks to the girls and in an attempt to impress them, quits his job. I would never have the courage to quit my job and tell my boss that they were not treating someone right but I have thought about it before.
As the girls walked up and down the aisles and each girl that he sees he starts to point out the flaws of each one of them mainly about Queenie when he states that she was a “queen” and that “she kind of led them”(a&p), as if they were a clique. Sammy still has his eyes focused on the girls for when they finally decide that they are ready to check-out, he then starts to show the immaturity of his attitude, and he states that he sees the costumer as “sheep and house slaves.” He then starts to look at his life through queenies noticing that there is something better than the convenient store which makes him hunger for more opportunities beyond his experience. The girls then come to check-out and the manager notices that they are just in bathing suits and he states “girls this isn’t the beach” and
Her craving for it grew from day to day, and she began to waste away because she knew she could never get any” (154). This detail is quite significant because food is readily available even for those in struggle. Also, it is a bit idiotic; a woman is going mildly insane due to craving of lettuce and the lack of which she consumes. Additionally, other differences in cultural details became apparent. In modern times we all root for the “bad boy”.
In the beginning of the story he is somewhat immature in the ways he views life. He is a daydreamer, which is shown numerous times in his talk of the three young girls. He is selfish when he quits his job with no regard to how it will affect his parents who may have to support him now or Lengel who has had to take over his job as cashier. Sammy show a sympathetic side by getting upset when Queenie becomes embarrassed, he also shows devotion by sticking to his decisions even after he realizes they were not wrong. By the end of this story Sammy shows how his characteristics have changed from that of a young man with no worries to that of a man by realizing how hard life would be on him and everyone who loves
Nohn Digker 01/18/2011 English 1102 Assignment -1 The Consequences of Choice In the story A & P, John Updike uses Sammy’s immaturity to show the consequences of choices. Sammy a typical teenager shows an immature behavior like most teens. From the moment the group of girls catch his eyes; he loses his attention and could not remember even if he had rang up the Hiho crackers in his hand. He finds himself following the path of the girls with his eyes as they go about their business looking for the product they have come in to buy. Wearing a bathing suit in a grocery store is more like being naked in public.
There was dancing women in dresses with their partners, a food table, and music. George went over to the dancing area while Lennie wandered off towards the food. He got his plate and started to gather some food when he stopped at this grotesque pig looking thing on a platter when he said “whats this?” the man standing next to him said “Its rabbit” Which came as a shock to Lennie and he dropped his plate on the ground and said “Who cooks up little baby rabbits and eats em” Lennie then walks away with a disgusted look on his face. George on the other hand has not been any better by himself, he's been slapped three times for using the wrong words talking to women and punched in the stomach for bumping into a guy. When he sees Lennie walking his way.
John Updike’s “A&P” is the story of a cashier at a grocery store and how he matures. One of the ways Updike expresses this is through the main character’s views and description of the opposite sex. Sammy’s changing attitude towards women displays how he grows and matures throughout the story. His harsh criticism of the way women think and look is displayed right from the beginning of the story but is later shown to be a bit softened. The reader sees this through his negative description of the regular shoppers and of the woman he checks out in the beginning, his mixed feelings about the three girls, and through his effort to defend the three girls in the end of the story.
He seems to be surrounded by these characters bound to their boring lives. Sammy uses different names to describe the people he sees in his conformist town. He calls the customers in the store “sheep”, (Updike, 20) because of how blindly they follow their usual routine and “houseslaves”, (Updike, 20) are what he calls the house wives with pin curlers puttering around the store. He goes on to say that the customers are so enveloped in their grey lives that if someone were to set off a bomb in the center of the store that they would fail to even notice. One customer, “the witch”, (Updike, 18) as Sammy calls her, is described as a serious looking woman one who diligently watches the register he is on, eagerly waiting for him to slip up and make an error.
While working on the register, Sammy encountered a scenario in which his courage was revealed. When three young ladies were being embarrassed about how they were dressed in the store Sammy was forced to choose either to let this happen or to stand up against his boss. He felt the embarrassment the girls
At several points she is frustrated in her attempts to access educational resources. In one instance she wanders from the gravel path onto the grass at Oxbridge where women are not allowed to walk. She is confronted by a security man who directs her back to the path causing her to lose an idea she had been contemplating. She is prevented from entering the Oxbridge library, again because she is a woman. She then attends a luncheon at Oxbridge and becomes engaged in what she believes to be a “rational” conversation only to be distracted by a Manx cat outside the window.