Sammy knows that quitting his job will eventually make his life a lot worse, but he sticks to his decision because he does not like what the store has to offer him. When Sammy walks out of the store he is not only leaving behind a job, but also a rigorous state of mind related with the A&P. There are many reasons as to why Sammy quit his job.
The environment of John Updike’s story “A&P” is really important as to why Sammy quit his job. Sammy describes the A&P to be very boring. The anchor store is a common unit in modern society, so the reader can understand the conformity of the setting Sammy is describing. The radiant light is as fresh as the “checkerboard green-and-cream rubber tile floor” (John Updike). The “usual traffic in the store moves in one direction” (John Updike), and everything is nicely organized and categorized in clean aisles. The robotized routine of the environment is demonstrated by Sammy’s careless references to the
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His action is intellectual against the authority he was criticizing without any good reason and was concerned about only when the girls appeared. He wanted to be a hero for the girls not a reformer against the ordinary. In fact, Sammy’s desires - his likelihood to degrade, older, unattractive women; his exaggerated admiration of the girls - are guided by the same greedy culture he is against.
Sammy quit to show that he was becoming independent. He seemed to rely on his parents for everything. While Sammy and Lengel argued over why he should not quit his job, Lengel said, “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” (John Updike). This presented the effect Sammy had on his parents and the relationship between his parents and his actions. The effort Sammy’s parents to get him the job would all go to waste if Sammy quit just because Lengel did not approve of what the three girls were doing. Sammy decided to go through with quitting despite Lengel’s