ipl-logo

Stand Up Like Sammy Analysis

1265 Words6 Pages

Stand up like sammy Being in a situation where one ends up embarrassed is not pleasant. Being publicly humiliated for wearing a swimsuit in a store that, keep in mind is about 5 minutes from the beach, is just plain ridiculous. Due to the managers public humiliation of the girls wearing their swimsuits in the store, Sammy’s action of quitting afterwards was heroic. To me, heroic means standing up for something you believe in even at the cost of your own personal happiness. Someone that’s brave. Sammy had his job on the line, his manager had been a friend of his parents for years and the girls were strangers to him but yet he stood up for them because he believed what he witnessed was unfair. A person who did something so brave like that, anyone …show more content…

He worked at a cash register at a small suburban towns store about 5 minutes away from the beach, right in the middle of town. “ In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits ” ( Updike 1013 ). One is the obvious leader ( Sammy mentally nicknames her Queenie ) because she is the leader/queen of her two friends that just seem to follow her around and stand in her shadow. They came into the store, looked around, went and asked Mcmahon at the meat counter something, got the item they needed and then came up to purchase the one item. That one item her mom requested her to get was Kingfish Fancy Herring snacks in pure sour cream. Right then, as she was purshading that single item, the store manager Lengel comes in and things took a turn for the worse. He sees that the girls are only wearing swimsuits and says to them “Girls, this isn’t the beach” ( Updike 1016 ) causing one of the girls, Queenie (as sammy mentally nicknamed her) to blush from embarrassment. Imagine being in a store that is about five minutes away from the beach and the manager telling you that, when you just came in to get one single item. She replied, “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks” and he replied to that with “That’s all right. But this

Show More
Related
1054 Words | 5 Pages

Jon Updike’s story, A&P is about Sammy, a typical nineteen-year-old boy who works as a checkout clerk in the grocery store. On an average day on the job, Sammy makes the unexpected decision to quit. What led to his decision to walk away from his job? The story tells of three girls who come into the grocery store dressed only in bathing suits. They make their entrance into the store where Sammy carefully observes their every move.

Read More
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”

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

Social Hierarchy & Irony in John Updike’s “A&P” In Lawrence J. Dessner’s dissertation on John Updike’s short story “A&P”, he mentions that the main character Sammy was made “enviously defensive by his notion that the underclad younger shoppers inhabit a higher social station than his own.” However, while elaborating on what made the main character have such adverse thoughts on everyone else in the store, and such poor decision making, Dessner blames Sammy’s innocence. I believe that Sammy’s awareness of the “social hierarchy’- and, according to that, everyone else’s social hierarchy- is the underlying issue of the short story. I also believe Irony plays a part in this story, in that by trying to stand up for higher class, our main character

Read More
248 Words | 1 Pages

Lengel does not appreciate how the girls are dressed because he deems it both inappropriate and unacceptable. These girls are characterized as tourists who were enjoying their time at the beach, located 5 miles away from A&P.

Read More
1094 Words | 5 Pages

This crafts a story with a in-depth focus on the mind of a character, who makes the choice to rebel because of three girls wearing swimsuits in a grocery store. Therefore, the distinct voice that Sammy possess ultimately gives the story a feeling of youth and

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

I 'm so hungry!” I whinned. “Here eat a snack.” My mom told me.

Read More
845 Words | 4 Pages

A person with true character is Jackie Robinson and he is a great role model for everyone going through tough times. This quote summarizes how Robinson was able to deal with the oppressive media “reporter: Whatcha gonna do if one of these pitchers throws for your head? Jackie Robinson: I'll

Read More
779 Words | 4 Pages

Sammy’s decision is stated by all as a terrible mistake. Sammy slips out of his slot and walks straight towards the door and walks out without looking back. Not surprisingly he thinks to himself, “I look around for my girls, but they're gone, of course.” While trying to use a heroic gesture to feel equivalent to the girls they seem to have not appreciated the gesture and leave.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

Giles and John were courageous and accepted their fates. Abigail was courageous in her own way when she stabbed herself with a needle to get Elizabeth arrested. There are many people in the world who portray heroic traits such as courage in their everyday life. A hero doesn’t necessarily have to have superpowers. What trait do you believe makes

Read More
414 Words | 2 Pages

“The door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car” (Updike). His action goes unexpected, the girls didn't hesitate, they were in a hurry to leave. This shows how the girls didn't notice what he had done. Although I believe Sammy is not a hero, others think he is.

Read More
1224 Words | 5 Pages

Lengel states, “We want you decently dresses when you come in here”. Which the girls respond, “We are decent”. Blushing, the girls seem to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. Disliking how Lengel speaks to the girls, Sammy decides to take a dramatic step and quits his job. He tries to impress the girls with this gesture, but the girls had already left.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

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).

Read More
1149 Words | 5 Pages

As the story begins, it is undeniable that the first person omniscient point of view is heavily loaded with observation techniques. Sammy is able to point out the dress code and the prima donna legs of the peculiar lady he has decided to call Queenie. Glued to his observation, he is able trace the steps of Queenie who comes down in measured heels. Furthermore, through the narration, Sammy reveals his keenness as he mentions the “dirty pink or beige suit” that is worn by the lady (Updike 359). As a dynamic character, the story of the three girls develops Sammy into an interested individual who describes the chest of Queenie as “mental tinted in light”.

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

This is where the dramatic conflicts comes into place because Sammy is upset that Langel has embrassed the young ladies. (Until almost the ending where Sammy confronts Lengel) Sammy does not stay quite and starts to stand up for these girls. Sammy is so displeased with Lengel's actions that he quits. Sammy quits his job because he wants to start living the life that the girls in the bathing suits were living.

Read More
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.

Read More

More about Stand Up Like Sammy Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document