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A & P Character Analysis

731 Words3 Pages

In the story A & P Sammy is an unreliable narrator who I believe is showing off rather than taking a moral stance in this story. Since he is a young boy he still shows signs of immaturity which represents his youth. His attitude towards the girls who walk in the store, the customers in the shop, and his actions lead readers to believe that he made certain decisions based off an immoral stance. While the main character believes that he is taking a moral stance, based on textual evidence, he is not doing so. Sammy’s intention with the girls are expressed through his reaction when he first saw them walk in. As soon as he glimpsed the girls walk in, he immediately starting describing their appearances and …show more content…

The first example of this is when he was scanning a lady’s items when suddenly he noticed the girls enter the store. He became distracted by the girl’s presence; thus, he could not remember if he had scanned an item already so he scanned it and the customer was not pleased with his actions. The women then proceeded to scold him for scanning the item twice. Sammy then made a comment as stated on page 32 “if she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem”. This comment shows that he is not mature enough to take responsibility for his own actions and seeks to put the blame elsewhere. It also shows that he is unreliable by showing a bias in his narration. There was not anything wrong about the women’s action, she did not want to be overcharged for no reason. Sammy perceived the lady as a witch because of a mistake that he made but did not acknowledge the incident as his …show more content…

As I mention in the second paragraph, after Sammy quit his job he left the store and immediately started looking for the girls. This action translates into his true intentions, which was to be noticed by the girls and to be a “hero” to them. Also, his last words at the end of the story on page 36 “…...my stomach fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”. This shows that he was still only thinking about how hard the world is on him and not the facts that show that he chose to go down this road and now he must deal with the consequences. This just sums up that he has not learned anything from this experience and he will most likely return to his old ways and continue to act based on hormonal feelings in the

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