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.
Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with "They'll
"A & P" written by John Updike tells the story of three adolescent girls, casually strolling through a grocery store wearing only swimsuits. Sammy is a young man who happens to work in the store and is very observant. He pays close attention to the three girls. He focuses on the most attractive of the three, the one who appears to be the leader and gives her a nickname, "Queenie". The girls' attire and the fact that they seemed to be aimlessly wandering about the grocery store only brought more attention to themselves, especially since the beach was about five miles away.
Sammy, the narrator of and cashier at A&P, is an opinionated, cynical, typical teenage boy with an obvious physical attraction to the opposite sex. Sammy is aware of everything around him and seems to have everybody figured out. From, according to Sammy, the witch-like customer whom he’s ringing up at the time he catches a glimpse of the three half-naked girls, to his coworker and manager. Sammy’s imperfections and narrow-mindedness are revealed by his particular observations. For example, the hanging bathing suit straps of one of the girls and the precise tan line boundaries of the other.
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.
We, the reader, can identify with the character and experience their deepest, innermost thoughts and feelings". The development of Sammy and his character throughout the story is done without the usage of any other mechanisms other than the general use of his thoughts and actions. For instance, at the beginning of the story when the young girls come in the grocery store they catch Sammy’s eye based off their physical attraction, stating "In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits... The one that caught my eye first was the on in the plaid green two-piece." (Pg.
Persuasive/Argumentative A&P Throughout the short story of “A&P”, the main character Sammy makes a few decisions that reflect on him as a person. Sammy is a grocery clerks man who works the cash register at the store called the A&P. Physical attraction, going about quitting his job, and lack of responsibility shows just who he is. One might say he is nothing more than a foolish immature young man. To begin, the way Sammy describes the girls at the “A&P” shows just how immature he is. “With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light” (540).
It’s certainly more entertaining than creating songs to the sounds of the cash register. He eagerly soaks up every minute of their presence until, climatically, the delinquency is brought to a screeching halt by Lengel. As the manager, he feels a duty to restore boring monotony and order to the store and therefore proceeds to dole out the proper reprimands. Sammy, fueled by hormones, adrenaline and a desire to break free from the mundane, decides to heroically quit his job right there on the spot in protest to the way the girls were treated. Quite different from what he had hoped for, his actions
In the story A&P by John Updike, the story is told by Sammy, a nineteen year old cashier, in first person narration. Sammy is an immature, observational teenager with a healthy interest in girls. There are many examples that show this behavior and it is displayed when three girls walk into the store one day in provocative beachwear. Sammy analyzes the girls bit by bit who were very noticeable and how they standed out among the rest so much, ultimately causing Sammy to ring up and old lady’s crackers twice. Sammy infers this one girl is the queen and infers that this queen who he ends up calls Queenie is showing them how to walk and keep their posture.
The manager Lengel does not seem to be too strict at first but has his ways I feel. Reading the story in first person we see the day in the life at work through Sammy’s eyes. He sees three girls come into the grocery story with only swim suites on. He nick names theses girls as “plaid, big tall goon goony, and queenie.” These names come to him I feel as the way that he sees the girls and how they carry themselves. Sammy keeps his eyes on them while they are shopping and in my eyes I feel that his way of watching over them.