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A & P By John Updike Analysis

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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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(273). Because Sammy had the courage to quit his job, he is like the girls in the bathing suits, refusing to conform. Because of his non conformity, Sammy's fear of a hard life to come seems to have a lot to do with Lengel. Lengel shows Sammy that life will be taxing for him if he quits, but Lengel’s actions prove that continuing to work at A&P is difficult as

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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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The Perspective Of Sammy In John Updike's A & P

1094 Words | 5 Pages

This crafts a story with a in-depth focus on the mind of a character, who makes the choice to rebel because of three girls wearing swimsuits in a grocery store. Therefore, the distinct voice that Sammy possess ultimately gives the story a feeling of youth and

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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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He felt sympathetic towards her after getting embarrassed by Lengel, and he went after her, despite wanting her for her body. Although in the end, when Sammy fails his goal, he is changed by the events that happened to him, and he is hopeful for the

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3 The story of “A&P” by John Updike adopts the uses of figurative language to embellish the critical moments of transitions of people’s lives, particularly in the life of Sammy. Updike utilizes crafts of plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, and symbol to constitute the story, and to project the idea of "life passages. " Also, Sammy undergoes a series of events that enables him to transition as a person in his life. 3

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255 Words | 2 Pages

John Updike's short story "A&P" is about a 19-year-old boy “Sammy” who is going through changes in his life, and has to make crucial decisions that are going to affect his job and his future in the long run. The story is set in an A&P grocery store, in a town north of Boston, and begins with Sammy’s description of the three girls that enter the store. Sammy decides to quit his job in order to impress the girl “Queenie.” Unfortunately, his gentlemanly act goes unnoticed by Queenie and her friends, and he has no choice but to face the consequences of his action. The author of the story clarifies that Sammy’s immaturity comes from his judgmental attitude, sexist beliefs, and disrespectful attitude.

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He notices everything around him and focuses closely on the details of the girls' physical appearance. He concentrates on the capability of going beyond the exterior details to fully insight the people he observes in the store. Sammy states, "the first one to catch his eye was wearing a plaid green two-piece, chunky, had a good tan, and a soft-looking can "(Updike 746). Being such an attentive character Sammy even notices that Queenie's dangling bra straps establish somewhat of an intense sensual environment for him. Additionally, Sammy's display of immaturity and prejudice behavior is shown through his observations and descriptions of the two chunky girls following Queenie.

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Female Objectification In John Updike's A & P

941 Words | 4 Pages

“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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592 Words | 3 Pages

When Lengel confronts the girls so directly about their behavior, and how they were dressed he ultimately degrades their power by embarrassing them. When they are so abruptly called out on their behavior it shows that they knew that what they were wearing was not appropriate attire for the small market. When Queenie responds to Lengel’s abrupt assumption of their decency she calmly answers back “We are decent” in an attempt to rebuild that power that was lost when they were embarrassed (). When Queenie replies so calmly is causes the reader to feel as though Lengel is the one who is in the wrong for so boisterously announcing their actions instead of quietly confronting the three girls of how they are

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692 Words | 3 Pages

Updike wrote “The women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street” (Updike 240). Older women would not have walked into a public store without making sure that the looked presentable. Updike felt that because these girls are younger they are rebellious and had no

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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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