Character Analysis Of Sammy In A&P

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Kristen Jackson English 1302 Professor Sharon Race October 25, 2010 Character Analysis of Sammy in “A&P” Every young person needs to realize (at some point) how important it is to take on some responsibility. In John Updike’s “A&P”, this is exactly what Sammy has to do. The story is about just a normal day at the grocery store. Soon, however, the entrance of three swim suited clad girls in to the store quickly breaks the monotony. Through Sammy’s thoughts and actions as events take place, we have become aware of his disrespect, judge mentality, and overall lack of responsibility. Being a typical teenager, Sammy does not hold very much respect for adults at all. This is first evident in how he refers to the woman who’s items he rang up wrong as “witch about fifty” (Updike 310) and also by how he says that “if she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.” (Updike 310). Sammy also shows disrespect toward the adult in the gray pants by saying, “what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice?” (Updike 312). It is easy to assume that Sammy is sometimes disrespectful to his parents from how he refers to the adults at the store. Sammy views the adults as “old, ugly, mean and stupid.” (Race) and it is evident by the comments he makes about them. Sammy also proves to be very judgmental of people. He judges the leader of the three girls when he said “she was the queen” (Updike 310) after seeing her in the lead of the others three girls. Sammy also judges the social class of “Queenie” by her voice and the herring snacks that she was buying. Sammy’s judge mentality is also evident by the way he so critically analyzes the girls appearances, deeming them attractive or unattractive based on his own personal preferences. Sammy seems to have a very negative outlook toward responsibility. He does not like his job at
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