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The Consequences Of Choice In John Updike's A & P

849 Words4 Pages

“Life presents many choices, the choices we make determines our future.” This quote by author, Catherine Pulsifer, which signifies how every choice has a consequence, weather that being good or bad, fits well with how the characters in John Updike’s short story “A&P” had consequences of their own after certain choices. Sammy is the main character and the one who makes the most significant choices among the other characters. Sammy is working at A&P grocery store as a cashier when he gets side tracked by three girls wearing nothing but bathings suits in the store. His attention switches from his job to the three girls very quickly until his manager, Lengel, gets involved and begins to reprimand the girls for how they were dressed inside the store. This is where Sammy makes …show more content…

The choice he makes comes with an unsuspected baggage of consequences. It is clear that there are certainly always consequences that arise when a choice is being made. That being said, A&P demonstrates how every choice has its own consequences.
First of all, based on the choices that Sammy showed by quitting his job, it is obvious that he faces many consequences. When Sammy wants to be the girls hero he decides to quit his job. When Sammy tells Lengel that he quits, Lengel says “Sammy you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad”(Updike 5), which is implying that the decision he just made is going to have a consequence that involves his parents. The story stats that Lengel has been friends with Sammy’s mom and dad for years and it is quite clear to see that he is not only going to have to bare with the struggle of finding a new job, but he will also have to deal with the reprimands of his parents. Since

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