You can tell in the beginning of the story when the line “In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits”. (Updike) He observes every little thing about these three girls from their tan lines to their bathing suits. After the girls walk in he is checking out one of the regular “cash-register-watchers” and he is so focused on the girls that he rings an item up twice and she yells at him. (Updike) From when the girls walk in till they come up to check out with one item Sammy is constantly looking and thinking about Queenie. Unlike his manager Lengel, he finds the girls a distraction from his everyday job where Lengel finds them arrogant for walking in to his grocery store with no shoes and only their bathing suites.
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”.
In the beginning of the story, the protagonist (Sammy) was at his cashier as usual when the antagonists (the Queenie and the girls) walk into A & P grocery store in their bathing suits and changed Sammy’s life forever. The exposition of this story starts when the girls walk in with only their bathing suits and start to shop in the grocery store that is in the middle of town. The story takes place back when people still had a bit of innocence and morals. So for these girls to walk into a grocery store in their bathing suits in town was kind of disrespectful. As the girls are walking around the store, Sammy starts to observe them whenever he could see them from out of the isles.
Angie Staiert Mr. Brandon Cummins ENG 102-OL6 October 22, 2011 Sammy’s Actions at A & P John Updike’s short story “A & P” is set in a small town grocery store with Sammy as a cashier. Three girls in bathing suits come into the grocery store, which may seem a little odd as they are nowhere near a beach, but it is summer time. Sammy and Stokesie (who is the other cashier) watch the girls as they stroll through the store looking for the one item they need. Sammy’s actions show how one person can stand up for what they believe in. 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.
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).
This can be done because of the amount of power the United States has over the other countries, and is a great example of how others use power, as well. John Updike’s “A & P” has a plotline that is focused around power. There are normal, every-day events that happen, like the cash-register-watcher that gives Sammy a hard time because he rang up her HiHo crackers twice, but the reason this specific day in the story was so important is the three teenage girls who walked into the store wearing nothing but their bathing suits. These girls walking into a conservative supermarket such as A & P shows not only a sign of rebellion, but shows a battle for power. Power and rebellion are concepts that pair very well, in that you cannot have rebellion without having someone in power who is making rules, or without someone who is powerful enough to challenge those rules.
When three girls come in with only bathing suits, he called them the same thing, “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle-the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)-were pretty hilarious,” (Updike 99). They come in, get what they want to buy from the aisles and goes to the checkout, and that is what Sammy sees every day. He thinks that these “sheep” or customers acts, dresses, looks and probably
In the story A&P, Updike is trying to make a point to never judge a book by its cover. Even though the young girls; Queenie, Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Gooney came into the grocery store with nothing but their bathing suits on and bare feet; doesn’t mean they were looking for trouble. All they wanted was to buy herring for Queenies mother. Readings between the lines of a characters point of view can be easy but can also be challenging. I chose Sammy from A&P because he was someone I could relate to in a sense of working behind the counter and watching other costumers.
In the story “A & P”, John Updike uses female sexuality, and the drive to deliver his theme of desire towards the opposite sex. Three girls walk in a store wearing just bathing suits. As they walk in the cashier, Sammy admires the three girls. Come to his
In John Updike's short story “A&P” we meet a young protagonist named Sammy who works at the “A&P grocery store. He takes notice of a group of girls who, wearing only bathing suits, browse throughout the aisles of the store looking for herring snacks. Throughout the story he appraises the girls sexually and judges them harshly, based on their looks. Towards the end of the story, the girls have a confrontation with the store manager because of their attire. This leads to Sammy defending the girls, and ultimately quitting his job, only to have his chivalric deed go unnoticed.