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A & P By John Updike Analysis

733 Words3 Pages

In “A & P”, by John Updike, the protagonist, Sammy, is a nineteen year old cashier working at the A & P. The manager of the store, Lengel, is a long time friend of Sammy’s parents. When 3 girls walk into the A & P wearing only bathing suits, Lengel tells them they are not “decently dressed” and asks them to leave. This begins a short conflict in which the girls say they are dressed appropriately, while Lengel insists they are not and must leave. Sammy, although he originally belittled the girls, begins to pity them and quits his job to impress the girls. However, the girls leave without noticing Sammy, and quitting leaves him in a difficult position in life. Throughout “A & P”, Sammy develops feelings of sympathy for the girls and develops into a better person. …show more content…

The grocery store is mostly empty and Sammy is bored when the girls walk in and begin shopping. Sammy, who narrates, begins to describe them one at a time. There is a "chunky one [in a] two-piece", a "tall one", and a "queen", who "led . . . the other two . . . around." He describes this last one in great detail, from the manner in which she walked to her dirty pink bathing suit to her "oaky hair". He begins to mock the girls, asking "do you . . . think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?" He also notices they are not average costumers, or as he likes to say, "sheep." He backs this up by saying "women . . . generally put on a shirt or shorts", and that "the girls were walking against the usual traffic." In brief, Sammy generally seems to mock and criticize everyone he sees, often without even knowing or having spoken to

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Analysis Of John Updike's A & P

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In “A&P”, John Updike wrote a short story about a male clerk at A&P grocery, named Sammy, who worked at a hot summer day shift when three young women in his age entered the store only in swimsuits to purchase some snacks. Even though shirts and shoes are required, Sammy did not report on the girls to the manager, but instead he allowed them to continue shopping as he looked and imagined the girls based on their appearance. As Sammy watched, Lengel, the store manager, felt that the three girls did not had shirts and shoes on, reprimanded them the rules, which the manager thought Sammy reported on them. Sammy did sign out after the girls left, which he not just realized the three girls’ affection, also was disappointed on this

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Upon seeing the three girls enter the store, Sammy instantly sizes them up. One is more chunky than the other two, the other girl is just average but “looks better from behind”. According to Sammy, “[She is] the kind of girl other girls think is very “striking” and “attractive” but never quite makes it, as they very

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A&P: The Perspective of Sammy “A&P” by John Updike tells the story of Sammy, a teenage boy working at a grocery store, when he sees three girls dressed in swimsuits enter. Quickly, Sammy becomes infatuated with the leading girl whom he dubs “Queenie”. Eventually, the girls are accosted by the manager for dressing inappropriately and Sammy quits in both an act of rebellion and wanting the appreciation of the girls. All throughout the story Sammy’s sarcastic and inquisitive nature comes out leading to a distinct voice and thought process the reader follows giving the reader a very opinionated view of all the characters and action in the story.

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The whole story, Sammy is watching these girls and noticing the way they move. He does not seem to care about any of the guests, and dismisses them as petty sheep; blindly following their grocery shopping lists and not giving notice to anything else going on around them. Sammy seems to have a coolness about him and does not care about what many people think of him; except those three girls in their bathing suits. He also serves to be a hero to the girls at the end of the story, but goes unnoticed when they leave the store. In an analysis of the story, it is stated that “In his focus on, his attitude about, and his description of the girls, Sammy represents conventional masculinity” (Bentley).

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Figurative Language In A & P By John Updike

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A & P By John Updike Character Analysis Essay

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“A&P” by John Updike is a short story expressing the issues of female objectification and degradation in society by following a young A&P employee’s views (Sammy) as they change through experiences second hand. Sammy goes from stereotyping objectifier to a form of a public defender, standing up for girls who can’t really do so for themselves. Sammy initially characterizes and describes all of the people in the store based on their looks and his initial opinion of them, rather than waiting to make judgements based on their personality, or not at all. He is very critical of looks, and is judgmental about why and how they look or act the way they do.

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The Power of Desire When reading “A&P” by John Updike the story provides many visual descriptions of the three girls that walk into the store. By Updike describing the three girls through a young boy’s eyes it gives a sense of desire for a certain female character that Sammy, the main character, nicknames “Queenie” (Updike 3). By Sammy watching the three girls it sets the scene for the remainder of the short story. When reading the story Updike provides details that create an image in the readers head of how Sammy views the girls.

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A & P By John Updike Essay

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In the short story, “A&P” by John Updike, Updike narrates through the point of view of a 19 year old cashier. Three girls enter the supermarket that the young man works at, in bathing suits, although they catch the attention of the cashier, the manger disapproves of their dress code in the store. The supermarket plays a vital role in Updike demonstrating the rebellion of the younger generation, by the girls not dressing conservative in public, the cashier’s fascination of their bodies, and the older manager disapproval. The first demonstration Updike used to show the teens rebellion was when the girls walked into the supermarket in just their bathing suits. The reaction of the young cashier and his coworker showed how unusual it was for girls to walk around in public with their bikinis on.

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The House On Mango Street

1224 Words | 5 Pages

Sammy is a nineteen-year-old cashier at a small store. Not used to seeing girls enter the store dressed that way, Sammy is shocked. Not being able to keep his eyes off the girls, Sammy notices details about their dressing. Sammy states, “She had on a kind of a dirty-pink bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down” (Updike, par. 3). We can see Sammy is sexually desiring these girls by the way he takes in every detail of the girls’ physical appearance.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

The grocery store was not that busy, informed in the story that “The stores pretty empty, it being Thursday afternoon, so there was nothing much to do except lean on the register and wait for the girls to show up again” (Updike 475). Sammy did not miss the opportunity to keep his eyes on the girls, especially since he was instantly interested in Queenie who was introduced to us as the leader among the girls. Each of the girls was different and had bathing suits on. Sammy was very descriptive about each bathing suit; he included many details. Queenie “had on a kind of dirty-pink beige maybe, I don’t know bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down, they were off the shoulders looped loose around the cool tops of her arms, and I guess"(Updike 473).

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

As the story begins, it is undeniable that the first person omniscient point of view is heavily loaded with observation techniques. Sammy is able to point out the dress code and the prima donna legs of the peculiar lady he has decided to call Queenie. Glued to his observation, he is able trace the steps of Queenie who comes down in measured heels. Furthermore, through the narration, Sammy reveals his keenness as he mentions the “dirty pink or beige suit” that is worn by the lady (Updike 359). As a dynamic character, the story of the three girls develops Sammy into an interested individual who describes the chest of Queenie as “mental tinted in light”.

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A & P By John Updike Literary Techniques

850 Words | 4 Pages

This helps the reader visualize a sarcastic and frustrated cashier ringing up an impatient customer. Sammy refers to the customers as “sheep” in paragraph five because of their conformity and slow mosey throughout the store also making the three girls stick out more. In paragraph 2, Sammy refers to one of the girls as a “queen” using a direct metaphor as if she truly was a Queen. This reinforces Sammy’s observant mind and way he breaks down each girl. Whether his opinion was positive or negative, deducing women by their looks and staring at their chests, “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,”(3), does nothing but further supplement the idea that these three girls are being watched just because of their choice in attire.

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