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Thesis For A & P By John Updike

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In John Updike’s short story “A&P”, the idea of feminism and gender segregation is prevalent in their patriarchal society. Our narrator, Sammy, is clearly a young man who objectifies three girls that walk into his store wearing swimsuits - as exemplified by his derogatory thoughts. However, at the end of the story, he performs a sort of objectification towards feminism by quitting his job in response to his boss’s reaction to the girls. From the moment the girls walk in, Sammy refers to their appearance based on their bodies. He describes one of the girls as having “a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it where the sun never seems to hit” (Paragraph 1) and comparing another’s breasts to “ the two smoothest scoops of vanilla [he] had ever known were there” (Paragraph 21). Interestingly enough, most of the comments Sammy makes about the girls correlate to food. It is no surprise that Updike chooses a “meat counter” (Paragraph 5) as their destination. In this society, women are seen as a piece of meat and just something “shiny” and “pretty” to look at like “a dented sheet …show more content…

It is clear by the “kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup” their bodies perform at the sight of Queenie and their quick aversion when “their eyes [snap] back to their own baskets” that they do not approve of the girls. Along with this, Sammy describes some of the viewers as “house-slaves in pin curlers” (Paragraph 5). By referring to the women as “house-slaves,” he is revealing the true role of women in this society - to be the typical stay at home mom who cooks, cleans, and takes care of the children. For further proof, he describes the typical woman customer as one “with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs” and says that they “generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street” (Paragraph

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There is also the element where the character dehumanizes the girls by finding fault in them and the way they dress. It is the opinion of this paper that this should not be the case. It is through the act of Chivalry that Sammy tries to impress the girls. When the manager of the store refutes their dressing, Sammy pretends to be angry and quits his job in the effort to impress the ladies. The ladies leave without taking a lot of consideration to what he had

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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”

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167 Words | 1 Pages

When I was writing my response, I thought of the word gender but nonconformity never came to mind when I read the story. Non-conformity is a good way to explain why people are distracted by the girls since it doesn’t follow the norm of the community. Do you think Sammy might be a little embarrassed for the girls since he explains in paragraph ten, “… the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something…”? Another good point you brought up is stereotypical view.

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527 Words | 3 Pages

I truly cannot imagine how three young girls could walk into a store with just their bikinis on. The main character of the story, known as Sammy, is a young boy who works at the store, and he spots some girls that he thought was very attractive. This is a very intense type story by the name of “A&P” by John Updike. Those girls were dressed very inappropriately because of many reasons, including these: It has always been a rule amongst stores to not go in dressed like that, people will judge based off of what people dress like, and they need to be setting a better example for the little kids that may be watching them. It has been a rule for the people of the U.S to walk into any place dressed appropriately for the occasion.

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1453 Words | 6 Pages

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” Sammy is the narrator and cashier at the grocery story A&P. The author uses dynamic characters with immensely different personalities to portray conformity and rebellion in our society. Through out the story Sammy challenges conformity and social norms at his work place for personal reasons. Sammy is very bitter character and taken as a realist which fuels the story. Queenie, a rebel against conformity, sparks Sammy’s emotions after the way she is treated by his boss Langel when she walks into the grocery store with nothing but a bikini covering her skin.

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726 Words | 3 Pages

Courtney M. Minor Dr. Adaku T. Ankumah ENGL 102 20 June 2015 Sammy: The Dynamic Characters Changes come with life, rather their momentarily or permanent. Some changes are for the great of good while others can be out of an ounce or more of spite. A dynamic character is someone who undergoes change doing the course of a story.

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446 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story A&P by John Updike, the main character Sammy quits his job in the end. I believe this is justifiable, by his views of Lengel/ Stokesie, by his beliefs, and by connecting his actions with my personal experiences. In the story Sammy his very particular views of Lengel and Stokesie. “Stuffy and uptight, Lengel is, to Sammy, a prisoner of the system as well as an authority figure”, his view of Lengel is that he is so far gone and the system has him.

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1574 Words | 7 Pages

Eli Norman 1020 English Dr. Beach 31 March 2017 Historical/Cultural Studies When thinking about culture, it has been evolving ever since we were born. From clothing to technology to just everyday life, culture changes almost regularly. If you ask your parents about the culture that they lived in when they were kids they would tell you that it was completely different from the one that we live in now. Even if you were to ask them about a certain thing, they would tell you that it has developed and changed rapidly, or isn’t even around anymore. In many stories, the time period of the story, is usually described by the things that are done, that are said, and even seen in the story.

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Life’s decision can be derived based on choices made among two or more alternative course of actions that are available. In the story A&P by John Updike, it tells us how a person thinks about the society and how it could affect its decisions in life. we have a theme of desire, conformity, rebellion and change in the story. As the story goes and set in the 1950s, it shows how the A&P represented a part of America in that specific era Three girls entering the store dressed inappropriately at the times show the rebellion the girls are doing against the conformity of the American culture.

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1224 Words | 5 Pages

Sexuality in adolescence Sexuality is the most notorious and common sign of development in adolescence. “The House on Mango street”, by Sandra Cisneros is a coming of age novel, where Esperanza transitions from a girl into a young teen. In her journey, Esperanza comes across many challenges, she is forced to grow up by life’s adversities. In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, a mother advises her daughter and scolds her into becoming a decent woman. In her guidance, the mother is worried about her daughter’s sexual activity and warns her about the consequences of improper behavior.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “A&P” by John Updike introduces us to a young teenager named Sammy who worked at the A&P grocery store looking to find his freedom. Throughout reading A&P, I 've noticed the main character Sammy had a very keen eye that spotted every minor detail. When Sammy saw the three teenage girls only wearing bathing suits enter the grocery store, he perceived the girls dressed as if they were going to the beach. Sammy explained to us in detail the different bathing suits that the girls were wearing and their physical appearances. The primary symbol represented in this story is the bathing suits worn by the three teenage girls.

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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.

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856 Words | 4 Pages

Gender roles envelope a large pool of ideals stemming from the physical standard such as women being small and graceful or the psychological such as the assumption that women are supposed to be passive and submissive (Plannedparent). Women in the professional workforce often see misogyny in a set of four typical stereotypical fashions: seductress or sex object, mother, pet, and the iron maiden (Kanter 1977 pp. 233-236). The sex object encompases everything from a women’s appearance to their choice of cosmetics, or the ways in which her voice carries either a “masculine” or “feminine” quality (Kanter 1977 p. 233). According to Kanter the motherly roles comes in several forms, from the tender and nurturing bringer of change, to the punishing and unfocused- based on responsibility to family matters- that would distract her from political responsibility (Kanter 1977, p. 234).

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704 Words | 3 Pages

The image portrayal of women in this film is a way for the people in our society to see women as not having good standards. As when Waldo is first introduced to the film Darla instantly started gazing after him for being the rich, clean cut young man. Also Boys see girls as a scapegoat when it comes to their problems such as the scene when the club house burned down, and Alfalfa almost lost his best friend he says, “it all happened because I liked a girl” but it was really nothing to do with Darla that caused all of those events to happen it came from him not telling the truth and trying to hide her. One can also see the ideal role a woman should play in society. For instance, after the race Spanky did not expect Darla to be the one that helped them or be the one under the helmet.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

The Impact of Setting in John Updike’s “A&P” “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle--the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)--were pretty hilarious” (Updike 651). As an average cashier at a plain A&P store in the middle of town, the protagonist Sammy is unaccustomed to customers in provocative attire. Queenie and her two friends (one chunky, one tall) are outcast in a setting of tremendous social conformity, and quickly catch Sammy’s watchful eye with their unexpected bikinis. Unabashed in teenage ignorance, these three girls continue to shop for herring snacks, unaware that consequence is at their doorstep.

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