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How Does Sammy Quit His Job

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In this passage from “A&P” in which Sammy has just quit his job and takes in the consequences suggests that he regrets making his impulsive decision. The author shows this through the use of contrasting, word choice, and imagery. In the first part of the passage the author is trying to show the terrible way the situation Sammy was in ended up with. He was looking for “his girls” in the beginning of the passage showing that he wished that “his girls” would have stayed to watch the so called heroic move he made.One can also predict Sammy is a possessive person by his word choice of “his girls.” By Sammy defending the girls he was wishing that they would admire what he has done and that he would get some reward out of it. By Sammy saying, “of course” it shows that he believes he is a person with constant bad luck. The mood from the beginning of the story to the end has also changed. The beginning seemed more of a up beat mood to it as he described the half naked girls that walked into his work place and how cute he thought one of the girls were. Later however the story shifted into a more sad mood where Sammy quits his job and rethinks the decision he made afterwards. …show more content…

He must have been looking back inside the small mart because he actually was interested in what was going on in there. If he had not wanted to remember the experience of working in the mart he would have just walked away without turning back. Sammy also mentioned that he saw Lengel in “his place in the slot” showing that he still has a connection to his job and that that is the place he is suppose to be, even though he impulsively chose to get away from it. This also highlights that he wants the spot to stay his spot. Sammy also calls the customers sheep symbolizing that he thinks of them as mindless creatures who just follow everyone else but he still misses working with them either

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When he sees the girls, he feels that there are people who are able to break out what is expected and can act different. By quitting his job, Sammy shows he is no “sheep” and have authority to act differently. The story takes place in a grocery store in a beach town. Without the setting, the girls would not have wandered the aisles and Sammy would not have a chance to quit his job. The theme of the story is appearance.

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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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