February 2023 The Queenie Infatuation In Updike,John,”A&P” Updike writes a story about a store cashier near the beach at the A&P grocery store. The young cashier, named Sammy, becomes infatuated with a group of three young girls that walk into the store in bathing suits. Infatuation is defined as a feeling of foolish or obsessively strong love for, or interest in someone or something (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Sammy’s infatuation is particularly focused on a girl he calls ‘Queenie’ that he believes is the head of the group of girls. In A&P, the author clearly shows Sammy’s growing infatuation with Queenie, from his initial highly-detailed description of her to ultimately quitting his job in an attempt to get her attention. In A&P, …show more content…
In the end of the story, Lengel, the manager of the A&P, tells the girls off for not having their shoulders covered while they are inside the store. Sammy is offended for the girls so he attempts to impress the girls. By standing up to Lengel, telling him that he is quitting, he hopes that they will seem him as their “unsuspected hero.” The fact that he is willing to give up his job over a girl that he has barely had a conversation with shows his level of infatuation with Queenie. However, the girls do not seem to even care that he quit his job over them; the girls do not even bat in eye to what he just did. Lengel tries to dissuade him from quitting telling Sammy that he does not really understand what he is about to do, but Sammy quits anyway. When Sammy takes off his apron and leaves the store, he fully expects to meet Queenie and the girls, but they are nowhere to be seen. This shows that despite the entire story building around this one girl Queenie, in the end he even quits for her, despite never really getting to know her, fully expecting her to see him as a hero but in the end, they were gone. As with most childhood infatuations, Sammy never approached the girls for a conversation and when he tried to catch up with them to talk his opportunity was