The Growth of Sammy in Updike’s A & P
In the story "A&P," by John Updike, the main character Sammy makes the leap from an adolescent, knowing little more about life than what he has learned working at the local grocery store, into a man prepared for the rough road that lies ahead. As the story begins, Sammy is nineteen and has no real grasp for the fact that he is about to be living on his own working to support himself. Throughout the course of the story, he changes with a definite step into, first, a young man realizing that he must get out of the hole he is in and further into a man, who has a grasp on reality looking forward to starting his own family. In the beginning, Sammy is but a youth growing up learning what he knows about life in small town grocery store. His role models include, Stokesie, the twenty-two year-old, supporting a family doing the same job Sammy does yet aspiring to one day have the manager's position, and Lengel, the store manager who most certainly started out in the same place that Stokesie and he were already in. Stoksie, the great role model, continues to be as adolescent as Sammy, with his "Oh, Daddy, I feel so faint," and even Sammy sees this noting that "as far as I can tell that's the only difference (between he and I)." Sammy whittles away his days looking at pretty girls and thinking about the ways of people. He hardly realizes that this is how he will spend his entire existence if he doesn't soon get out of this job. During this day that will prove to change his life, he makes the step towards his realization. He decides that he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life working at an A&P competing for the store manager's position. Sammy thinks to himself about his parent's current social class and what they serve at cocktail parties. And, in turn, he thinks about what he will be serving, if he stays at the A&P, "When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with 'They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stenciled on." He must get out and the sooner the better. He is still just an adolescent who hasn't completely thought through his decision and yet his mind is made up.
But life is not a fairytale. Standing there lonely, having no job is our Sammy. This is when Sam realizes his path, the true way to become mature. The moment when “Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient:” Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” (Updike) hold him back a little bit, we can feel the regret in his heart. But he cannot go back anymore, decision has been made. He gives up his last chance; from now on, he’s on his own. Sammy finally understands that it is responsible behavior but not playing “adult-like” game that will make him a true
In Hollywood political conflict was also paving the way for what would later occur in Hollywood as the HUAC would attack the industry. Big business controlled the lucrative industry and the companies that controlled the market were eight major studios in Hollywood. The Metro-Goldw...
At first glance, Sammy, the first-person narrator of John Updike's "A & P," would seem to present us with a simple and plausible explanation as to why he quits his job at the grocery store mentioned in the title: he is standing up for the girls that his boss, Lengel, has insulted. He even tries to sell us on this explanation by mentioning how the girls' embarrassment at the hands of the manager makes him feel "scrunchy" inside and by referring to himself as their "unsuspected hero" after he goes through with his "gesture." Upon closer examination, though, it does not seem plausible that Sammy would have quit in defense of girls whom he quite evidently despises, despite the lustful desires they invoke, and that more likely explanations of his action lie in his boredom with his menial job and his desire to rebel against his parents.
Interpretation of A & P This story takes place in 1961, in a small New England town's A&P grocery store. Sammy, the narrator, is introduced as a grocery checker and an observer of the store's patrons. He finds himself fascinated by a particular group of girls. Just in from the beach and still in their bathing suits, they are a stark contrast, to the otherwise plain store interior.
John Updike's short story “A&P,” centers on a young immature and morally ambitious teenager who faces down the generation gap and, rather than bending to the dictates of the elders, rebels against them, securing his rather insecure place as a young, unproven man. Sammy, the main character, describes the entrance of a group of young attractive girls into the supermarket, “In walk these three girls in nothing but bathing suits…They didn’t even have shoes on”.(864) Sammy is mesmerized by their presence that he cannot do his job. The supermarket manager, Lengel, scolds the visitors by exclaiming “Girls, this isn’t the beach”.(867) Within the few moments after Sammy dramatically quits his job in protest of the quite impolite treatment by Lengel he says to himself “…and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”.(869) Because of his youth, and certainly because of the extremes of behavior that the young are prone to demonstrate, Sammy perceives that his life will forever be damaged by his actions. Though we certainly understand that this is not the case, that no one’s life is inexorably ‘ruined’ by the decision to do something momentous, it is certainly quite charming to transport ourselves into a time in our lives when such passions ruled us. This image awakens in us the expect...
As people age, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experiences. From the time a child turns eighteen and becomes an adult, they are required to deal with the realities of the real world and learn how to handle its responsibilities. In John Updike's short story, "A&P", the protagonist Sammy, a young boy of nineteen, makes a drastic change to his life fueled by nothing more than his immaturity and desire to do what he wants and because of that, he has do deal with the consequences.
In his short story "A & P" John Updike utilizes a 19-year-old adolescent to show us how a boy gets one step closer to adulthood. Sammy, an A & P checkout clerk, talks to the reader with blunt first person observations setting the tone of the story from the outset. The setting of the story shows us Sammy's position in life and where he really wants to be. Through the characterization of Sammy, Updike employs a simple heroic gesture to teach us that actions have consequences and we are responsible for our own actions.
The short story “A & P” by John Updike is about a young man’s decision to stand up for others or, in the other characters’ opinions, make a foolish decision by abandoning his responsibility. At first he believes his decision is the right thing, quitting his job for how the girls were being treated. Then when he gets outside of the store, he realizes the world he just left behind, regrets his decision, and begins to question his actions. He starts to overthink what the world has to offer him, making his worldview change from underrating to overrating. His “unsure of the world’s dangers” worldview in the beginning changes to overrating the dangers of the future ahead at the end of the story causing Sammy to change throughout “A & P”.
In "A&P" Sammy changes from an immature teenager to a person who takes a stand for what he believes is wrong which is reflected in Sammy's words and actions. This paper is composed of three paragraphs. The first paragraph deals with the immature Sammy, the second concentrates on Sammy's beginning his maturing process, and the last focuses on his decision to take a stand no matter what the consequences are.
In John Updike's short story, "A & P," the main character, Sammy, is a cashier at a small grocery store. He is seen by many to be a sexist pig, describing in detail how he sees the three girls that walk in to the store. Sammy is in fact a sexist pig by what he says about them. With evidence and quotes from the story, Sammy can be determined to be a sexist pig. He describes the first girl he sees walking in the store as "a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it..." (421). Although the comment was kept to himself, in mind it is a sexist comment. Though the girl was in a bathing suit and there was no beach around, she probably wasn't trying to get the attention of young guys. She was just there to "pick up a jar of herring snacks" (423). Describing the girl's "can" (421), meaning her backside, gives Sammy some credit of being a sexist pig. Sammy slowly begins to see the other two girls follow the first. He notices not only what they're wearing, but what the little clothing that they have on covers up. "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" (421). With this quote, he is describing how the bathing suit was slipping off the girl, but in a more demeaning manner. "With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and top of her head except just her..." (421). Sammy describes that he just sees the girl, a one-nighter type. He doesn't see that she's a human, but just a plaything. One other quote/thought that Sammy has while these girls (whom remain nameless throughout the story), is when the one he calls Queeny takes her money from "the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top" (423). He begins to get excited as he uncreases the bill as "it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla [he] had ever known there were" (424). Sammy seems to be more of a sexist pig, as the reader proceeds through the story.
Sammy, the protagonist in John Updike’s “A&P,” is a dynamic character because he reveals himself as an immature, teenage boy at the beginning of the story and changes into a mature man at the end. The way Sammy describes his place of work, the customers in the store, and his ultimate choice in the end, prove his change from an immature boy to a chivalrous man. In the beginning, he is unhappy in his place of work, rude in his description of the customers and objectification of the three girls, all of which prove his immaturity. His heroic lifestyle change in the end shows how his change of heart and attitude transform him into mature young man.
John Updike’s “A&P” is a short story about a nineteen year old boy during the 1960’s that has a summer job at the local A&P grocery. The main character in the story, Sammy, realizes that life isn’t always fair and that sometimes a person makes decisions that he will regret. Sammy sees that life doesn’t always go as planned when three young girls in bathing suits walk in and his manager Lengel gives them a hard time, and he comes to term with that sometimes you make bad decisions.
John Updike's "A&P" is about a boy named Sammy, who lives a simple life while working in a supermarket he seems to despise. As he is following his daily routine, three girls in bathing suits enter the store. The girls affect everyone's monotonous lives, especially Sammy's. Because the girls disrupt the routines of the store, Sammy becomes aware of his life and decides to change himself.
John Updike's A&P provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. A gender analysis could be drawn from the initial outline of the story and Sammy's chauvinism towards the female. Further reading opens up a formalist and biographical perspective to the critic. After several readings I began seeing the Marxist perspective on the surreal environment of A&P. The economic and social differences are evident through Sammy's storytelling techniques and even further open up a biographical look at Updike's own view's and opinions. According to an essay posted on the internet Updike was a womanizer in his own era and displayed boyish immaturity into his adulthood. A second analysis of this story roots more from a reader-response/formalist view. Although Sammy centered his dramatization around three young females, more specifically the Queen of the trio, it was a poignant detailed head to toe description of scene. I'll touch on that later.
In 'A&P'; by John Updike a young cashier named Sammy is very confused about the concept of life. In the beginning of the story Sammy is very passive and ignorant about life. His passiveness and ignorance are brought upon by his mother sheltering him during most of his life. Sammy compares himself to another cashier who works at the A&P, Stokesie. Stokesie is twenty-two and Sammy is nineteen. Sammy sees a reflection of himself when he looks at Stokesie because of his lack of ambition and wanting to become nothing more than a manager of the store. When Queeny comes into the store, showing all of her leadership abilities, he sees the total opposite of himself. Queeny is like a shepherd leading a flock of sheep; she is in control. Sammy recognizes Queeny's headstrong attitude and he admires it very much. Queeny is just how Sammy would like to be, a headstrong person, a leader, and a person with ambition. After the conflict at the register with Queeny and the manager, Sammy decides to take charge of his life and do something for himself. Because of Sammy's huge change, he is no longer passive and ignorant. He is now active and realistic toward the world and its changes.