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.
Web. 20 Sep. 2012. This article describes the dull and monotonous atmosphere that Sammy portrays before three girls clad in bathing suits walk in, in John Updike’s “A&P”. This short story takes place in a grocery store named “A&P”, which employs 19-year-old Sammy. The person behind this article, M. Gilbert Porter states, “Sammy reveals through his descriptions of the store and its customers that implicit set of values which will ultimately set him against community mores.” Sammy describes the customers in a droning matter and how repulsed he is by their dullness and impassive character of their existence.
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.
In the United States of America, who had “not met an Indian in Canada who has not suffered the humiliations of being overlooked (in jobs, in queues, in deserved recognition) and from being singled out (in hotels, department stores, on the streets, and at customs. (Mukherjee, Bharati, An Invisible Women.) In a department store an employee was racist towards a customer based on the customers skin color, and singled the customer out. The customer paid for the items, collected the bags and was about to leave the store when the blaring siren went off. Immediately the customer came to a stop and turned around.
Sammy watches each of the girls as they look around the store, but there is one that catches his attention right as they walk in. He is so busy staring at her that he makes the customer he is "ringing up" very mad at him. Sammy describes the young girl as a "chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft - looking can with those two crescents of white just under it..."(Updike, 734). He notices everything about the girl, even down to the fact that she does not have a tan line, so she must have just bought the bright green, two piece bathing suit. He also notices that she is very conscience of being a little over weight, because she "…fumbled with the cookies, but on second thought she put the packages back"(Updike, 735).
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.
“They’re Not Your Husband” is a short story by Raymond Carver, where he writes about the man named Earl Ober, who is an unemployed salesman, with his wife (Doreen) working as a waitress, at a 24-hour coffee shop. After a night of drinking as he usually does he goes to see the place where his wife works. Here he is treated like a nuisance by his wife. Two men start talking about his wife’s weight and this bothers Earl greatly. He decides to let Doreen know that she (he) has a problem with her weight.
Throughout the story, Sammy seems to become attached to these girls. He can’t take his eyes off of them as if they were the most beautiful structure he has ever seen. Sammy whose life is changed by the three girls seems to have everything in check about people, but realizes that the girls are a part of his life as much as the store. At one point he is bashing these three girls on everything they do, but he also wishes that he was the one who was the unusual and different one in his life; which led him to wanting to quit his job. In the “A&P” Sammy whose stature on life is changed by three girls who show him that being different can also be sane.
Like Cinderella Jane is a poor, unfortunate girl when growing up. Unlike Cinderella though, she was never known for her beauty; yet Mr. Rochester fell deeply in love with her. Despite the fact that she wasn’t beautiful, she had another trait that intrigued Mr. Rochester: her intelligence. When Miss Ingram was visiting Mr. Rochester for a period of time at his home entertaining him Jane notes how beautiful she is, but instead of becoming jealous she pities her. She states, “She had a fine person, many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature” (Brontë 1.239).
A&P was a little different read than the usual short stories because it didn’t talk about someone’s life or series of event, instead it talks about how one small mistake leads to downfall of a young boy’s life. Sammy who is a young boy as a cashier working at a neighborhood grocery store with Stokesie, his partner also as a cashier, finds himself in a position one day when he feels the urge of speaking up about something that he thinks is wrong but little did he know that his words and sudden action will only put him down and become a regret forever. While working on a regular sunny day Sammy notices that three girls had walked in to his store in bathing suits. The whole store pays attention to them including Sammy’s manager and his work partner but his manager notices that Sammy is showing a little too much interest in them. 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.