Lakoff emphasizes that “[t]his uncertainty is reinforced in more subliminal ways, too. There is a peculiar sentence-intonation pattern, used almost exclusively by women, as far as I know, which changes a declarative answer into a question. The effect of using the rising inflection typical of a yes-no question is to imply that the speaker is seeking confirmation.…”(510). By frequently ending statements in questions the speaker loses credibility and in a way asks her audience for confirmation. Not only do women undermine their image by using this - women’s language- but, a woman’s image can be altered by the words that are used to describe her.
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.
The female characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can be divided into two extreme categories: "ball-cutters" and whores. The former is represented by Nurse Ratched, Harding's wife, Billy Bibbit's mother, and Chief Bromden's mother. Each of these women are intent on dominating men by emasculating them, whereas the whores Candy and Sandy are dedicated to pleasuring men and doing what they're told. Despite the obvious nature of this observation, Kesey aims higher than asserting male dominance over female acquiescence. His goal is to assert those qualities identified as feminine to undermine those qualities considered masculine.
The girl in Araby is sad because she is not able to go to a festival that she wants to go to, where as ‘Queenie’ is sad because she has been scolded in front of everyone by the manager of the market. The boys finally have found something to fight for and feel themselves as their saviors. The boy in “Araby” feels like it is his duty and responsibility to make the girl happy. ‘‘I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.’’(881) In the same way, Sammy in “A&P” quits his job, thinking he is now the girl’s hero, who stood up against his boss to save her from the embarrassment. ‘‘So I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected
A&P Analysis John Hoyer Updike’s short story “A&P” shows an eighteen-year-olds’ point of view of a 1960’s era grocery store. The dynamic protagonist, Sammy, explains the mundane lifestyles of the customers in the store based on his observations from the checkout counter. Suddenly the store is disrupted by three girls that enter the store wearing only bathing suits and defy the organization of the business. Sammy wants to change his cookie cutter lifestyle; after observing the girls, he realizes he does not have to conform to the social standards he was lead to believe. Sammy observes the patrons of A&P mundanely going about their shopping, like “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (6).
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.
They also represent the girls’ deliberate provocation, an attempt to attract the eye of every man they encounter. Sammy is initially drawn to the girls simply because they are scantily different , young, and attractive.. What he ultimately finds compelling about the girls in their bathing suits is that they have disrupted the system of rules that he has been forced to observe, an observation that Lengel, the authority figure, underscores by trying to enforce the rules the girls have violated. When Sammy quits his job, he significantly removes the corporate uniform that establishes his place in the system. Sammy views quitting the job as his way to assert his own independence However, the freedom of the bathing-suited girls remains unavailable to him. .
Alex figured if she thinks im good looking mabey she will love me tonight. And sarah figured if she could avoid love it would go away and all guys were jerks. In the end they both relize there ways of logic towards love were off. So due to those common mistakes many individuals lack the ability to go out and find that special one. They just sit back and watch as another man who will mistreat that girl come in and ruin all hope.
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. Not only does Sammy see the customers as leading a dead end life, he also sees this in his co-workers. His fellow clerk “Stokesie”, (Updike, 20) a twenty two year old, married father of two who’s biggest dream is to one day become the manager of the A&P grocery store. Sammy sees this as an unfulfilling dream and predicts that it will never come true. Finally Sammy defines his manager Mr. Lengel as a dreary old Sunday school teacher who seems so unsatisfied with his own life, that he makes a point to tend to everyone else’s business.
The story has some bad examples, especially if you are a young reader. “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad, (A&P, page 298)”. Here is an example of when Sammy quits because he saw the beautiful woman and now he wants to go hang out with them because he is fed up with his store manager. As a young reader, they might get the idea that Sammy did the right thing, while older readers will argue that the story provides teens with bad examples and thus may cause them to think like Sammy when they encounter such situations. A second example I would add is, “But remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside (A&P, page 298)”.