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John Updike's A & P

988 Words4 Pages

Sammy, one of the cashiers working at A & P, is the main character of “A & P” by John Updike. “A & P” is a short story focused on Sammy’s thoughts on three teenage girls walking into a grocery store in the middle of a small New England town wearing only their bathing suits. The girls entice Sammy, causing him to mess up and ring up an old lady’s merchandise twice, provoking the lady to “give[ing] him hell.” Sammy explains to the readers the appearance of the three girls and even gives each of them nicknames based on their looks. He speculates the girls’ personalities on the way they present themselves, thinking that they are prideful, attention-seeking women. Sammy, along with the other employees of the grocery store, continue to admire the …show more content…

Sammy is also very judgemental, reinforcing the theme that the way an individual acts causes society to judge you in a certain way. From the moment Sammy notices the girls, he immediately begins to generate opinions on the girls based on the way they are dressed. Sammy judges the girls by their bodily appearances, announcing to the readers how one is a “chunky kid” and another had a “chubby berry-face.” Queenie, the one who Sammy found most attractive of the three girls, was described to us as having a “flat and dumb, yet kind of tony” voice. Sammy also judges the girls on their actions, for example, he says, “She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn’t walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step.” Even just on the way she walks he starts to come up with thoughts about her daily life. The way she walks makes him assume that she doesn’t walk in her bare feet often. Although judgemental, based on his actions, Sammy is somewhat perverted for staring at the girls for so long. He also has a more gentle side, standing up for the girls by quitting his job. Although courteous, we can also sense that he has an attention-seeking personality because he says “I quit” loud enough in hopes for the girls to

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Sammy’s First Wrong Steps into Adulthood Young people usually make mistakes during their first steps into adulthood. Especially boys, some of them would do everything to impress a girl. A boy would even quit his job to meet a cute girl. The main reason is to catch girls’ attention.

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A&P: The Perspective of Sammy “A&P” by John Updike tells the story of Sammy, a teenage boy working at a grocery store, when he sees three girls dressed in swimsuits enter. Quickly, Sammy becomes infatuated with the leading girl whom he dubs “Queenie”. Eventually, the girls are accosted by the manager for dressing inappropriately and Sammy quits in both an act of rebellion and wanting the appreciation of the girls. All throughout the story Sammy’s sarcastic and inquisitive nature comes out leading to a distinct voice and thought process the reader follows giving the reader a very opinionated view of all the characters and action in the story.

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John Updike’s story “A & P” was written in 1961 and takes place in a small town in Massachusetts. In a supermarket named “A & P,” which is on the town’s Central Street and is across from typical small-town stores – “two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store and three real-estate office” (Updike 748) – a cashier-clerk named Sammy witnesses three girls walking into his store wearing bathing suits, and he recounts his perceptions of them, their actions, and how they contrast with his relatively bland setting. Since he objectifies these women throughout the story (using phrases such as “sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it” (Updike 746-7)), it could be suggested that “A & P” is a satire

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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.

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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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A major theme in A&P is personal freedom. Throughout the story Updike uses metaphor for all elements in the story to implies the theme. At the beginning of the story, Sammy uses sarcastic tone to describe the customers as “sheep” and “houseslaves” which implies he is different from them in mindset. The way how Sammy talks about others shows his intellectual mind. He is not same as Stokesie who wants to be a manager one day.

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In comparison to A&P when Sammy is describing his feelings towards the girls, “With the straps pushed off, 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 from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean, it was more than pretty,” (Updike). This description of the girls in A&P is much more raw in the sense that, Sammy describes them very materialistically but not in a way where it seems like he has an obsession with the girls. However in Araby, the way the narrator describes the feelings for his crush is almost creepy. It reminds us of a creepy middle school crush that wouldn’t stop following you

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“A&P” by John Updike is a short story expressing the issues of female objectification and degradation in society by following a young A&P employee’s views (Sammy) as they change through experiences second hand. Sammy goes from stereotyping objectifier to a form of a public defender, standing up for girls who can’t really do so for themselves. Sammy initially characterizes and describes all of the people in the store based on their looks and his initial opinion of them, rather than waiting to make judgements based on their personality, or not at all. He is very critical of looks, and is judgmental about why and how they look or act the way they do.

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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.

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Sammy clearly exhibits a lack of respect for his elders, judges everyone who walks into the store, and blatantly makes sexist remarks about the three girls. He focuses on their bodies rather than their personalities and views them only as objects. “A little buzz like a bee in a glass jar” seems to describe Queenie’s thought process for Sammy; however he makes this narcissistic judgment before getting to know her (Updike). This culmination leads to Sammy’s immaturity which results in him quitting his job. By the remarks made throughout the story, the readers are lead to believe that Sammy does want more out of his life than a clerk job at a store and he has the desire to move up the socio- economic ladder.

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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).

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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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The Impact of Setting in John Updike’s “A&P” “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle--the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)--were pretty hilarious” (Updike 651). As an average cashier at a plain A&P store in the middle of town, the protagonist Sammy is unaccustomed to customers in provocative attire. Queenie and her two friends (one chunky, one tall) are outcast in a setting of tremendous social conformity, and quickly catch Sammy’s watchful eye with their unexpected bikinis. Unabashed in teenage ignorance, these three girls continue to shop for herring snacks, unaware that consequence is at their doorstep.

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