At the end of “A & P” Sammy show’s his frustration on how the girl’s in the store had been treated by his manager Lengel that he quits in order to stand up for what he believed in. When Lengel comes to Sammy’s register to say to the girls, “Girls, this isn’t the beach” (19) and then later on say the same thing and belittle the girls that way. While Sammy was bagging up the girls groceries he’s thinking about what he is going to do; “pass a half and a penny into her narrow pink palm, and nestle the herrings in a bag and twist its neck and hand it over, all the time thinking” (19). After Sammy has ended the transaction his decision on what he is going to do has been made. As the girls leave the store in a hurry Sammy says to Lengel “I quit”.
In John Updike’s “A&P”, standing up for what he believed was right was all it took for Sammy to become an adult. As Sammy rang up the purchases of the everyday “sheep” (79) and “house-slaves” (79), he notices the “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (77) that had come in. Like most hormonal, teenage boys would, he watched the pretty girls as they walked throughout the store, especially “Queenie” (79), who appeared to be the leader of the girls. He began to feel bad for them though when he realized his male coworkers were also “sizing up their joints” (79). After all, “they couldn’t help it” (79).
Lengal approaches to Sammy’s register and tells the girls that the grocery store is not the beach and that they need to start wear appropriate attire next time if they want to shop in the store. As the conflict starts to rise, the Queenie and the girls walk out after they checkout their item and Sammy gets offended with what the manager told them. So as the rising action took place, Sammy took off his apron and bow tie and quit right on the spot. Sammy hit his climax point when he ran outside to see if he could catch up to the girls. And to his surprise, his action fell apart.
This short story relates brief but significant events for Sammy, three shopper teenage girls enter the grocery store, where he works, in bathing suit. Dressed for the beach, Sammy fantasize about them speculating about their personalities and private lives. The three girls rebelling against the law of society, Sammy tries to do the same by quitting his job hoping that it would catch their attention. The girls not caring about him leave without paying attention to him. The story ends with Sammy realizing the consequences of his rash decision and feeling “how hard the world was going to be for [him] hereafter”.
Happiness In John Updike’s “A&P,” Sammy, a nineteen year old cashier at a local grocery store meets three bathing suit clad girls who end up affecting his entire life. The author has chosen to present this story through first person point of view. By allowing the story to be told in first person point of view the reader can truly get a reading of Sammy’s personality and background. Sammy quit his job because of his customers, his fellow workers, and boredom. One of the reasons that Sammy ends up quitting his job are the customers at the A&P.
The three girls do not represent conformity and Sammy would like to be like them. The customers are stunned as the girls make their way through the store, prompting the manager Mr. Lengel to speak to the girls about their attire “Girls this isn’t the beach” (Updike, 222). Lengel told the girls they needed to be properly dressed when they came to the store and Sammy views this as an attack on nonconformity. Sammy decides to quit his “He’s been a friend of my parents for years.” (Updike, 223) Sammy is wondering what his parents would think about him quitting. “….I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter, Sammy knew he made a decision that he has to deal with but he stood up to it showing a sign of
Before going in she was a little nervous. Misty stated this was only because she always messes up when counting change. We walk in, and as Misty is trying to decide what she will buy Brian says to us “I have a bad feeling about this one.” I ask him why and Brian says “I have seen people be pretty snotty around this store.” Misty chuckled and said, “These folks will see snotty after what I have been through in the last month they just need to back off today.” Misty went back and grabbed a gallon of milk. As we started walking to the counter Misty said she was not sure if she could do this, I told her that it would be ok, but in the end she went ahead and went through with it. It was a very busy day at Schnucks.
You have to learn how to handle situations in an orderly manner and approach at the right time and place. In the story, it started off with you being at the checkout looking at the three girls in bathing suits who walked in the store. You were too busy worrying about the girls and how they looked that you were not focused on your job. You actually tried to blame an old woman for your problems. When you are working in an environment like that, it is easy for you to get distracted from your duties.
In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, check out boy Sammy stands up for the “mistreatment” of girls dressed in bikinis who came into the grocery store that he worked at. While practically drooling at the girls as they walked through the aisles, his mind had essentially put them on a silver platter. When his boss told the girls to not come back without some proper clothes on, Sammy quits his job saying to his manager, “You didn’t have to embarrass them.” Sammy’s abrupt decision to quit showed how much he was caught up with the girls, of whom he didn’t even know. After handing back his apron, he ran outside expecting to see the girls waiting for him in order to thank him for standing up for them. Obviously when he got outside, they were long gone.
My understanding of the ending of the story is that the young man Sammy quit due to the fact that his boss was rude to the young ladies. Lengel felt that the bathing suits that the girls had on was not decent and should have not been worn in the A&P store. There was no harm done to anyone in the store. The workers there on a slow Thursday received some enjoyment while the girls were walking around the store looking for the herring snacks for Queenie’s mom. The girls should have had respect and covered themselves up going into the store.