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Symbolism in 'A & P' by John Updike

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“A&P” is a short story by John Updike about a young man by the name of Sammy. Sammy works at a grocery store by the name of A&P on the east coast, which is smack in the middle of town and 5 miles from the beach. However, Sammy’s dull workplace gets flipped upside down when 3 girls stroll in wearing bathing suits. This changes Sammy’s life forever as he takes a rite of passage to learn about conformity, power, and girls. One of the things Sammy comes to understand during his job is how he is to be one with the corporate system symbolized by A&P. At the beginning, Sammy is quite clear that he is not like the “sheep” and “house-slaves” shopping up and down the aisles. Sammy is confident that he is neither a conformist like Stokesie, who wants to climb the management ladder, nor is he a lackey like Lengel, who haggles over cabbages and hides behind his office door all day. As he surveys the scene, Sammy displays this wise guy attitude. However, this persona disappears when the three girls enter the store in bathing suits. As these girls have a disruptive effect on the usual order of the store. Causing Sammy to become distracted and make an error in a customers transaction. The girls move against the traffic flow of the …show more content…

And as Stokesie takes notice of the girls, Lengel comes out to protect his store and his values. These girls challenge Sammy, as he can see through everyone in that store, except the girls. He can’t seem to figure them out, so they cause him to question

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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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While quitting his job is not the most practical course of action, Sammy forcefully acts upon Lengel’s injustice in hopes Queenie will see his heroism. His attack on Lengel’s paternalism and embarrassment is to no avail for this hope, however; as Sammy follows outside, he is met by vast openness. Such a defiant act marks the descent from a small A&P to the expansive world, and discovers a new talent for the young adolescent; regardless of motivation, Sammy is willing to fight against wrongdoing - and rebel against established

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