(Updike, 1961, p. 335)Sammy’s mixed emotions of lust and pride lead him to quit his job after the manager criticizes the girls about their choice of attire and their self-respect. Sammy has an epiphany as he walks out the grocery store and realizes he just quit his job out of hopes of having the
Essay 1 A Boy to a Man The story of “A & P” written by John Updike is based in a small town’s A & P grocery store. It is a narrative view of the stores customers through the eyes of a young man who lets his infatuations, stubbornness and immaturity outweigh life in a result of him quitting his job at the local A & P where he is a cashier. The young man understands that life is about decisions and once they made you carry them out even if the outcome is not what you would expect. The story starts with Sammy, a cashier at the A & P, as a young man stuck in a plain old store located five miles from the beach that’s customers were the same from day to day. It begins with three young girls walking through the doors of the A & P in attire less than appropriate for the grocery store.
Trice 1 Chancelor Trice Mrs. Edgmon English 1301 13 february 2012 Analysis of "A & B" In the analysis of A & B John Updike uses a good narration process. Right from the start i noticed that John Updike main character of the short story is a young man Sammy. Sammy works in the A & B. The A & B is a grocery store in the center of a small city near the ocean. The short story is manly based on four character's, sammy one the the cash register clerks, and three girls who walk into the store.
First, I will discuss tension in the story. When Sammy first sees the three girls, he gets distracted and this leads to a social conflict with the old lady he is checking out. The old lady gets upset because Sammy rings up a box of HiHo crackers twice. The customer is what Sammy refers to as a “cash-register-watchers”, and she is just looking for a reason to start a conflict. Next is when Sammy is thinking about how a girls' mind works, and wondering if they really have a mind or just a “little buzz like a bee in a glass jar.” The story uses juxtaposed images such as “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle...” Sammy is comparing the customers at A&P to sheep.
Throughout John Updike`s short story "A & P" the protagonist Sammy, a young 19 year old male, is constantly judging the cliental who walks into the grocery store, A& P. For example, when three girls walk into the store with nothing but their bathing suits; Sammy’s mind begins to be very active when he is judging the girls. As Sammy watched Quennie “buzz” over to her friends, it made his stomach (and who knows what else) rubs the inside of his apron (Updike 2). Sammy also observed the women in the store turn away when they noticed the girls almost as if they knew what would happen and were ashamed for young girls (Updike 2). At which point, Sammy views all the older, less attractive shoppers as “sheep” pushing their carts around in a herd, or as “house slaves in pin curlers” (Updike 2). Through the choice of words by the author in these references from the book, the reader is led to believe that women were generally portrayed as passive individuals, known to stay at home, cook for their husbands and care for the children while the men were active at work.
Analytical essay of A&P by John Updike Gail Kelly; C0321148 Eng 160 This short story by John Updike is set in the North of Boston in 1961. During this time in history there were major political concerns as Cold War hysteria plagued most of the United States. The protagonist, Sammy, is a clerk at a grocery store who spends his lazy work days analyzing the patrons. On this particular day there is an attention-grabbing display happening in the store; three young girls are shopping in bikinis. Given that it is the 1960’s the idea of girls strolling around in bathing suits in public is out of the ordinary.
Danielle Mireles Smith English 1302 Paper # 4 Point of View 28th February 2012 Word Count 750 “A & P” John Updike’s short story “A&P” takes place in 1961, in a small town in New England in a grocery store. Sammy the narrator is a grocery checker, he finds himself interested by a group of girls who walk in to the store. As they grocery shop Sammy observes the looks of the other customers comparing to the 3 girls. Sammy describes each girl in the story, the main girl “Queenie”, the second girl he described as chunky and the third girl was the tallest of the bunch. The girls were barefoot and wore their bathing suit, which is how they caught Sammy’s attention.
The theme of the story: Sammy's encounter with a trio of swimsuited girls in the grocery store where he works encompasses many of the themes central to adolescence, including accepting the repercussions of one's choices. When Sammy quits in protest of how the girls are treated by the store's manager, he knows that from now on, the world will be a more difficult place. Choices and Consequences: An important theme in "A & P" is that of choices and consequences. All of the main characters in the story must make a choice and endure the consequences of that choice. The consequences of these choices are not always apparent to the characters.
Even though she tried fighting till the end, she had to finally give up. O’Keefe, too, did not like her job and compared herself to the minimum wage employees. When she got unemployed from the perfect job, it changed her life and she started sympathize with people who were in same position as she was (O’Keefe 206). In contrast to her situation, O’Keefe’s step father found two good jobs and was successful at both. He sold bras and slips to stores and with the money he was able to support his family and their wants and needs (O’Keefe 208) When Wal-Mart became his competitor; he had to stop selling undergarments and had to come up with a new plan.
Name Changed Life In the “A&P” 19 year old Sammy who is a story all by himself is changed by three girls who enter his life as they walk in to shop at the local “A&P”. In which later on he decides to quit his job for these girls as a cashier at the local grocery store called the “A&P.” Realizing that he has made the decision to quit not only for himself, but the girls who inspired him not literally but figuratively quit to make what he seemed the right choice. In this short story, Sammy seems to have mixed opinions about these three girls who walk in. He sizes them up almost as they were all close friends and have known each other for years. Throughout the story, Sammy seems to become attached to these girls.