Yasmine Reza’s God of Carnage depicts precisely what the title of her play states. Two couples, both of the upper-middle to upper class, meet together one night to discuss a seemingly simple matter: one couple’s son has knocked out two incisors of the other’s with a stick. Initially, the parents—Alan and Annette Raleigh and Michael and Veronica Novak—act as civilized adults trying to sort out the problem without hurting anyone’s feelings. Socially awkward, Annette compliments the Novaks’ tulips; Alan remains completely disengaged; Michael tries to make the Raleighs feel at home; and Veronica seems to be the only one truly caring about the issue. The entire dynamic of the play shifts when Annette, tired of Alan’s shamelessness in talking on his cell phone constantly, vomits all over the Novaks’ coffee table and Veronica’s precious books.
(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
Emily Nguyen Mrs. DiTallo L.A. per 5 5 April 2012 A&P Cause and Effect Essay The interesting short story “A&P” by John Updike is about a teenage boy named Sammy. The story starts, when three girls come in the store in only their bathing suits and Sammy notices them. Sammy then he starts to analyze them until they came to checkout their item until Lengel, the manager, starts an argument with the girls. Sammy, for a strange reason defended them and finally quit and going out to the parking lot to find the girls, which is nowhere to found. In “A&P”, the circumstantial causes intertwine with Sammy’s “choice” causes to create effects which speak directly to the story’s theme.
When the Queenie takes out the money “out of the hollow at the center of her nibbled pink top” (Updike, P136) Sammy thinks it is cute but actually, it is a kind of rude to not wear like that in the store. Sammy was on the right track even he does not like it. He did not suppose to do anything when his boss blames the girls. But he falls into a desire---being a hero in front of them. This desire leads him to make a hasty decision without careful considerations---to quit his job.
Thinking that if he goes to a Methodist meeting his sins will be washed away and he would be revived, Little Jess attendees the meeting only to just look in then leave. Upon arriving home, he sees his father pacing with no shoes on. Little Jess’s guilty feeling can no longer be contained; he confesses his ‘sins’ to his father. Jess, the dad, tells Little Jess he knew what he was doing and made sure the knife, which was given to Roy, was sharpen. After their heart-to-heart, Jess and Little Jess go and rinse their feet, metaphorically washing the secrets and sins away.
So, he walks up to them and tells them that next time they decide to walk in they should cover their shoulders meaning be in appropriate attire but Sammy with a young mind thinks differently and thinks that anyone should be able to shop how ever they want in whatever attire. His fellow worker is also shocked at the manager’s attitude but does not show much attention also Sammy realized hat one of the girl’s named Quennie had also noticed her so he steps up and tells his manger that this is no way to talk to someone, takes off his apron and quits. Sammy is thinking to get attention from the girls while trying to look good but does not notice that the girls were too much into themselves and after being insulted they just walked right out. The manager saw them as not appropriately dressed girls who had just put a show for the whole store and tells Sammy that he is going to regret what he is doing but Sammy still walks out only to find himself left alone in the parking lot now in a worst condition for a stupid mistake. Sammy decided to quit in
When they get to the front of the line they placed the item into Sammy’s hand. While he rang up the item he noticed the girl was not wearing a ring or bracelet. Sammy thought “Not a ring or a bracelet, bare as God made them, and I wonder where the money is coming from.” Updike is making the reader think that the girl does not have a significant other to buy her things. As they get embarrassed by the manager about their appearance and how Sammy comes to the conclusion to quit his job. The central idea of this story is coming of age.
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.
Judgment May Vary An underlying theme in “A&P” as well as “The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven” is none other than judgment. Sammy is a cashier in the story “A&P” and Victor is a Native American in “The Lone Ranger…” who struggles through his life trying to find his place of belonging in the world. Having previous experience as a cashier, the only entertainment seen in a work day comes from the customers shuffling around the store grabbing, dropping and sometimes stealing items. In Sammy’s case he saw all of the customers as “sheep” except for the three girls who walked in. And so begins the judgment with a woman who Sammy believes to be about fifty with nothing better to do than scold him for accidentally ringing up the same item twice.
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.