ipl-logo

Sammy In John Updike's The Metamorphosis

1152 Words5 Pages

There are various aspects of the characters Sammy in "A&P", and Gregor in "The Metamorphasis". A&P was written by John Updike. Presumably, the story is set in the summer of “1961”. This year can be presumed as the year in "A&P," because that is when the actual story was written. Seemingly, there are no hints of any other year in the short story, leading the reader to believe that 1961 is the year. Similarly, "The Metamorphasis" does not share the time of the story. To give a guess, 1915 is the year author Franz Kafka created Metamorphosis. "A&P" is about five miles from a beach north of Boston. "The Metamorphasis" does not hint at its place. There are no given indications of where these stories take place. In the beginning there is little …show more content…

In general, a climax is in the next stage from the beginning of a story. Climaxes for both Sammy and Gregor flip-flop from the beginning. This time, it turns out that Sammy has more of a problem now than Gregor. To begin with, in Sammy's case, Sammy starts the "sad part...story" by empathizing with the girls. Sammy empathizes with the girls by putting their lives in consideration. "I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them" (Updike 19). The manager's opinion conflicts with the girls' lifestyle and he says, "Girls, this isn't the beach...That's all right...But this isn't the beach...Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy" (Updike 19). Sammy then creates the main conflict when this happens: Liengal asks, "Sammy, have you rung up this purchase?...I thought and said "No"...The girls...are in a hurry to get out, so I say I quit to Lengel [the manager] quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me" (Updike 19, 20). I believe that Sammy has an attraction to the girls, and impressing the girls is the priority. There are two events that could be used for priority. For one, Sammy choosing not to ring up …show more content…

Sammy is staring back at it when he quit his job. Sammy: "Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron" (Updike 20). Sammy shows in the end what would be seen as a sign of regret. The regret would be that he quit his job. "My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." Sammy does survive in his story "A&P" (Updike 20). In "Metamorphasis", Gregor dies in his insect form. The cleaning woman says: ""Come and look, it's had it, it's lying there, dead and done for."" The quote of the cleaning woman refers to Gregor's death. The insect wasn't eating food for an extended period of time. Ultimately, the lack of nourishment in Gregor caused the insect's death. Gregor did not

Open Document