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. The essay starts off with Sammy, the character from which the first person point of view is through, watches three girls walk in through the front doors. He then begins to check them out and look more at their details. Updike writes, “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet …show more content…
Updike writes, “stopped, and turned so slow it made my stomach rub the inside of my apron”. At this point in the story you might not think it’s much of a hint, but it really is a big clue for what is to come. It is when Sammy has a vision of what one of the girls life is like at home that we realize he wishes he kind of wants to be like her. In this vision, “Her father and 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” (Updike par. 13). To show Sammy wished his family was more like hers, Updike compared their families by writing, “When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade” (par. 13). By the author putting this in the story, it shows more foreshadowing of how the story will end. Lastly, towards the end of the story sammy makes a big decision that he possibly regretted but it leaves it up to you to decipher. Updike writes, “I quit [...] hoping they’ll stop and watch me” (Updike par. 22) but “They keep right on going [...] leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow” (Updike par. 22). This is kind of hard to tell what the author was trying to get across but by allowing us to see Sammy’s thoughts we can see he kind of regrets his