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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
A group of three girls walk into a A & P grocery store wearing only bathing suits and throughout the story a guy named Sammy who works up at the front register eyes the girls noticing every detail about their attractiveness. Sammy finds the leader of the group to be the most attractive and names her “Queenie.” With three girls all dressed up for the beach and no beach near by it definitely gets other people interested looking at them and the manager of the store in particular. The manager stops them at the checkout line and tells them it’s store policy that they can’t wear what they’re wearing and the girls get very defensive and walk off. Sammy then tries to be heroic and quits his job so he can stick up for the girls but by the time he goes
When Lengel says ,“We want you decently dressed when you come in here” (Updike) it reminds Sammy that these girls should not even be in the store. He is so happy to see these ladies, but his boss ruins his ideal happiness by asking them to cover up. Before Sammy makes the decision to quit his job he hears Lengel say this. When he realizes the girls are going to leave, he quits his job to try and save these ladies or bring all their attention to him. Sammy says, “ I look around for the girls but they’re gone, of course” (Updike) meaning that Sammy goes to find these girls but he can not find them.
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
There are instances in which Sammy even admits to uncertainty about the details of his environment, such as when he says that Queenie “had on a kind of dirty-pink – beige maybe, I don't know -- bathing suit” (Updike 747). Another example is where he pontificates about some customers walking by the three girls by saying, “You could see them, when Queenie's white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed” (Updike 748). These quotes illustrate that Sammy was quite infatuated with the girls as well as cynical about the apparently bland setting of his supermarket, and thus serves as an unreliable narrator in terms of factual information about the story’s setting. What is so intriguing about Sammy’s narration, then, is that it is focuses more on his evolving ideals of freedom from his conventional surroundings than on strictly factual accounts of his job, the supermarket, or the three girls. His first vision of nonconformity is represented by the girls, who rebel against the aesthetic conformity of the supermarket.
The story takes place on a hot, summer day at a grocery store called the “A&P”. The protagonist is a nineteen year old male cashier by the name of Sammy. The central conflict occurs when Sammy watches three girls in bathing suits enter into the store to buy some herring snacks. Sammy gleefully watches them and gets attracted to the middle girl, “Queenie”, eventually being infatuated for her.
They represent the personal freedom that they can dress anything they like in public. Then, there comes Lengel who is the most traditional person in the story. He judges the girls’ bathing suit, and calls that indecent. It means at that time people’s freedoms are still under oppressed. People should be conformed and obey authority.
The short story “A & P” by John Updike is set between 1947 and 1991 during the Cold war and a period when women were generally objectified. The protagonist of the story, Sammy, is a typical teenager boy with a part time job as a check out clerk at a grocery store called A & P and has a fondness for attractive young girls. The plot begins when the presence of three girls in bathing suits came in the grocery store intensely sidetracking Sammy and his co-worker away from their work. Due to enough distraction, the manager, Lengel, recognizes the delay in the till and hastily reacts on the problem by embarrassing and shaming the girls for their attire. Although Sammy shows that he disagrees with Lengel’s treatment of the girls by quitting his job,
The chief of police I am slaving for wants me to write in this journal. I’m not a sissy, but there’s nothing wrong with that either. I had no choice in the matter because I was her last option as a field agent. Jerry was on family leave, Michael was investigating a child abduction case and here I was, alone with my boss in our lonely, yet homey, police station.
In this essay we will be discussing and comparing and contrast “Sugar” from “Sugar Changed the World”. “Sugar” and “SCTW” have very different central ideas, influences on sugar, and genres. So, in this essay we will be examining the differences. “Sugar” and “SCTW” differ because, “Sugar” is fiction and “SCTW” is non-fiction. “Sugar” has characterized people.
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.
Sammy also states, “there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head, except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in light. I mean, it was more than pretty” (Updike, par 3). Sammy feels sexual attraction towards these girls, their physical attributes mesmerize him. At first, Sammy seems to come off as a sexist teen, but later he tries to prove that he is different. Sammy’s boss, Lengel, confronts the girls and calls them out for their attire.
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).
There is no doubt that the girls like the attention from all the customers nevertheless the girls intention maybe different from what everyone else is thinking, as queenie replies to Lengel "We weren't doing any shopping. We just came in for the one thing. " So it could be possible that the girls are just there to get one thing but the way people view them and the way Lengel demanding them to leave make them feel like outsiders. The girls knew that what they are doing in that store was different and somewhat inappropriate but they dare to take a risk because they are coming of age and have their own way and what they get from Lengel is something that was unexpected. In a way the girls are being judge by people on the way they look and the rules
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.