In the short story, “A&P” written by the late author, John Updike, a nineteen year old cashier named Sammy is faced with a societal conflict. As Sammy is working the register on a particularly mundane day, three teenage girls walk into the grocery store clad in nothing but their bathing suits. Sammy considers this odd because the beach is a whole five miles from the beach. He lusts after the girls, especially the leader, whom he referred to as “Queenie”. Excitingly enough for Sammy, the girls choose his lane to check out at. My ponders at the purchase of a can of red herring snacks and place himself in Queenie’s home with her family, which he assumes to be much more wealthy than his own. He is shaken from his thoughts when his manager comes over to scold the girls for the attire. The girls apologize and leave but Sammy cannot let …show more content…
He is angry at the manager for reprimanding them, so he quits against his better judgement. He rushes outside hoping that the girls had heard him resign or were even loitering a little in the parking lot but they were gone. Sammy’s passion fueled exit from A&P did not even grant him a second look at Queenie. The story ends with him wondering how is life is going to turn out when he has such knee-jerk reactions. The conflict in “A&P” is caused directly by Sammy’s fondness and lust for the girls. Sammy describes the way Queenie pulls her money out of her bathing suit top as “so cute” it makes the jar in his hand feel heavy. The climax begins at the scolding the teenage girls received from Sammy’s manager at his register. Sammy has grown sympathetic for the girls already because of the way his coworkers stared at them but he could not handle them being embarrassed like this. Queenie tells the manager of A&P that she is only picking up “one thing” for her mother. The manager tells Queenie that she is not dressed “decent” to which she replies that she is decent, insinuating that the manager is the one being