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John Updike's A & P

1060 Words5 Pages

In the short story '’A&P", the author John Updike portrays the theme of feminism through one of his main characters, Sammy. By being a worker at A&P, Sammy goes through changes once he notices these three girls continuously coming into the store. Sammy stands up for the rights of these three girls after his boss says something to them about not being clothed, and it ends up showing Sammy's character development. The store, A&P, is where the entire story takes place. The store and the people that are shopping in the store represent just a normal, everyday, grocery store. People are casually shopping for what they need and the main character, Sammy, is an average cashier at the third checkout slot in the establishment. The store represents society today and throughout the story we learn, the expectations of shopping in public. …show more content…

At the beginning of the story, we can see that Sammy is very attentive to the younger girls who come into the store. He has thoughts about the girls showing too much skin. In the text it states, “There was this chunky one, with the two-piece – it was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp, and her belly was still pretty pale.” (first page, top of second paragraph) As the reader can interpret from the text, Sammy seems to observe the girls in the very beginning of them starting to frequently come into the store. This shows that Sammy could have just been a very observant person, or that he was thinking about the girls in a more sexual way due to him observing their bodies and exposed skin

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163 Words | 1 Pages

Societal changes and cultural differences affect our daily lives both consciously and unconsciously regardless of the cohort. A&P, composed by John Updike, tells of a 19-year-old store clerk, Sammy, who watched three girls create a stir between customers and co-workers after walking through the aisles in their bathing suits; as a result, they were insulted by the manager, Lengel, in front of everyone in the store. Sammy was mesmerized by the one he referred to as, “Queenie” (Updike) as she gracefully and confidently defended her and her friend’s honor after Lengel scolded them for their attire. Consequently, Queenie’s actions inspired Sammy to be their “unsuspected hero” (Updike) and quit his job in hopes of them noticing his heroic act but

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609 Words | 3 Pages

The character development of who shops in the store makes the reader aware of how inappropriately the girls are

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844 Words | 4 Pages

There is also the element where the character dehumanizes the girls by finding fault in them and the way they dress. It is the opinion of this paper that this should not be the case. It is through the act of Chivalry that Sammy tries to impress the girls. When the manager of the store refutes their dressing, Sammy pretends to be angry and quits his job in the effort to impress the ladies. The ladies leave without taking a lot of consideration to what he had

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319 Words | 2 Pages

The short story “A&P” written by John Updike was about a nineteen-year-old boy named Sammy that is a cashier, who ends up meeting three customers that happened to be attractive young girls dressed in swimsuits. They entered the grocery store that was located in a small Massachusetts town where he worked. He is portrayed to be cynical and at times romantic as well. The central theme of this short story is learned while aging and becoming which is accepting the consequences of our many actions as an adult. Sammy ended up quitting his job to stand up to his store manager for the girls that he found were mistreated.

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436 Words | 2 Pages

The Narrator in the story A&P by John Updike tells an experience where he chose to make a decision that would change his life and take him to new places. This decision was one that was derived from the need for freedom and change. Usually a decision like this takes a realization that growing up and taking a new path is necessary. In this story, this realization began from the narrator seeing how his manager treated the girls in the store with such hostility because they were just wearing bathing suits. The boy, watching this, realized he wanted to live like the girls had been living.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

One of the reasons Sammy quits is he wants to impress the three scantily dressed girls. However, as the story continues there are more clues of why Sammy quits his job. A deep discontent has been building with Sammy long before the girls walk in the door. Sammy realizes how bored he is with his tedious job,

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502 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story “A & P”, John Updike tells a story about a boy named Sammy who works at a Grocery store. He explains how this young man watches girls his age and how they were treated in the store one day. Sammy made the decision to quit on the spot because of that and he was hoping the girls would notice his action but they didn’t. The reader is allowed to understand the story and predict the life lesson because of the first person point of view Updike used.

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274 Words | 2 Pages

Regardless the constraint he feels inside the store, A&P, Sammy simply expresses his wanting to have Queenie, who symbolises freedom due the actions she does that he considers rebellious to the principles and the ordinary. The story unfolds with Sammy noticing the three girls enter A&P “in nothing but bathing suits” and shows an immediate and strong attention to them enough to make him forget whether he rang the HiHo crackers. He begins to describe the girls and states that first girl’s “belly was still pretty pale” and that the second had “black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right”. After a short explanation of the previous girls, Sammy portrays an endless detail of the last one, whom he calls Queenie of how she “walked straight on slowly”

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1453 Words | 6 Pages

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” Sammy is the narrator and cashier at the grocery story A&P. The author uses dynamic characters with immensely different personalities to portray conformity and rebellion in our society. Through out the story Sammy challenges conformity and social norms at his work place for personal reasons. Sammy is very bitter character and taken as a realist which fuels the story. Queenie, a rebel against conformity, sparks Sammy’s emotions after the way she is treated by his boss Langel when she walks into the grocery store with nothing but a bikini covering her skin.

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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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329 Words | 2 Pages

Sammy referred to the customers in the store as sheep, leaving the reader to think of them as people who had no sense of leadership or worth. Sammy compared himself to the other employees, not wanting to end up with their lot in life, such as an unimaginative drone like Stokesie. When the three girls, only wearing swimsuits, walk into the store we see the true nature of Sammy, a boy who is only interested in the physical appearance

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414 Words | 2 Pages

Sammy was just impressed by how the girls had the decency to walk in a grocery in bikinis, it made his day. “The one that caught my eye was the one in the plaid green two-piece” (Updike). He never spoke to the girls, he only stared like a deer in headlights. These statements explain how

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687 Words | 3 Pages

John Updike had purpose to include the A&P store and the time period in his short story of “A&P.” In the 1960s, America was having many political issues. There is importance for the setting and time Updike choose for this short story. He wanted us to relate to this boy named Sammy who wanted a change in his life. The setting in “A&P” written by John Updike, was an integral element for Sammy’s character to be dynamic.

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368 Words | 2 Pages

Discuss one of the following regarding John Updike's "A&P": Characterization, Setting, Theme. Sammy is the narrator of this story. He is an opinionated teenager who describes people shopping at the store as “sheep”. He believes everyone acts the same.

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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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