Sammy the Social Climber in A & P
Men will go to extreme measures to impress women. This is the case in the story "A & P" written by John Updike. Sammy, who is a cashier at a supermarket, displays a classic example of a man trying to impress a woman. His rash decision to quit his job was a bad decision and will definitely have an adverse effect on him in the future.
Sammy seems doomed from the very first sentence when he says, "In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits" (Updike 1026). He notices every little detail about the girls from the color of their bathing suits to their tan lines. At this time he is checking out "one of these cash-register-watchers," and he is yelled at for ringing up her item twice (Updike 1026). This distraction from his job shows his interest in the girls, especially the one he calls "Queenie."
To Sammy’s delight, Queenie and her two friends pick his register to purchase the "Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream" (Updike 1027). When she puts the snacks down on the counter, Sammy notices that her hands are free. While he is wondering where the money is going to come from, she proceeds to pull the dollar bills "out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top" (Updike 1027). This gesture puts Sammy in total awe of the girl, and this is the turning point, this is when he makes his decision that he should try to impress her. His big chance comes when the store manager, Lengel, makes a visit to Sammy’s line.
"Girls, this isn’t the beach," is the first thing Lengel says to the girls when he sees them (Updike 1028). Queenie explains that her mother sent her to pick up some herring snacks, implying that since her mother sent her it is perfectly fine for her to be in the store with only a bathing suit on. While Lengel and Queenie are arguing, Sammy visualizes himself at Queenie’s house during a party. In his imagination he sees, "her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them" (Updike 1028).
Earthquakes are a natural part of the Earth’s evolution. Scientific evidence leads many geologists to believe that all of the land on Earth was at one point in time connected. Because of plate tectonic movements or earthquakes, continental drift occurred separating the one massive piece of land in to the seven major continents today. Further evidence supports this theory, starting with the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a large mass of plate tectonics, which are increasing the size of the Atlantic Ocean while shrinking the Pacific. Some scientists believe that the major plate moveme...
We know he is attracted to Queenie because he goes to great lengths to tell us what she looks like, what her mannerisms are, and the way that the other girls follow her. For example, he says, "She was the Queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round" (1026). This simple quote shows that Sammy immediately identified Queenie as the one in charge. Another quote that describes this perfectly is, "but you got the idea that she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and now she was showing them how to do it, walk slow and hold yourself straight" ( 1026). Naturally Sammy is attracted to Queenie and wants to be noticed by her. Sammy thinks to himself "She must have felt in the corner of her eye me and over my shoulder Stokesie in the second slot watching, but she didn’t trip. Not this queen" (1027). Sammy is surprised to see something like this in his town. He says, "and the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car and into the street. And anyway these are usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs and nobody, including them could care less" (1027).
"A & P" is told from Sammy's point of view. Sammy presents himself as a nonchalant and flippant young man. He appears to be somewhat contemptuous of the older people shopping in the store. However, near the end of the story, we see that he does take responsibility for his conscience-driven behavior and decision, revealing his passage out of adolescence into adulthood through the courage of his convictions.
The earth is split into four layers, inner and outer core, the mantle and crust. The top of the mantle and crust make up what is like the skin of our earth (see source 2). The skin is split up like a puzzle and we call these puzzle pieces’ tectonic plates (see source 1). These plates are constantly moving and the plate boundaries (edges of the plates) move and slide past one another. Sometimes as the plates move the plate boundaries become stuck. Pressure builds up in the stuck area over time and eventually breaks. This is why earthquakes occur due to the sudden movement of the plate sliding and breaking creating a fault line to go off. The fault line is the line on which the
In John Updikes’ A&P, a 19 year old man named Sammy was working as a cashier for the store. Three girls, wearing only bathing suits, walked into the store. He was so captivated by the girls once he noticed them. Distracted by their beauty, he started describing them, detail by detail. The question asked was whether Sammy’s act of quitting was selfish or was it a sacrifice and if he cared about the girls’ dignity. The evidence provided in the upcoming paragraphs show that it was a selfish act and he did not care for their dignity. The gesture was selfish because he was just absorbed by their looks and the details of what they looked like, he did not think about the store policy, and the final paragraph shows his regret when he walked outside
The science of the natural disaster has baffled many, but from studying the San Francisco earthquake, scientists have made a number of important discoveries and they have a better understanding of earthquakes. At 5:12 on a fateful April morning in 1906, the mammoth Pacific and North American plates sheared at an incredible twenty-one feet along the San Andreas fault, surpassing the annual average of two inches (“San Francisco Earthquake of 1906”)(“The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fires”). The shearing caused a loud rumble in the Californian city of San Francisco. A few seconds later, the destructive earthquake occurred. The ground shifted at almost five feet per second, and the shaking could be felt all the way from southern Oregon to southern Los Angeles to central Nevada (“Quick”)(“The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake”). Moreover, the earthquake could be recorded on a seismograph in Capetown, South Africa, an astounding 10,236 miles away from San Francisco (“San Francisco ea...
John Updike's story "A&P" talks about a 19-year old lad, Sammy, who has a job at the local grocery store, the A&P. Sammy works at the register in the store and is always observing the people who walk in and out each day. On this particular day that the story takes place, Sammy is caught off guard when a cluster of girls walk into the store wearing just their bathing suits. This caught Sammy's attention because the nearest beach is five miles away and he could not figure out why they would still be in their suits. Sammy continues to overlook the girls in the store throughout their endeavor to pick up some item's that they were sent in for. While they are wandering around the store Sammy watches the reactions of other customers, is yelled at for ringing up a woman's item twice, and watches the whereabouts and gestures of the girls until checkout. Once the girls proceed to checkout they are approached by the manager of the store for being improperly dressed in public. Sammy felt that the encounter with the manager was unnecessary and discomforting to the girls and he decides it is time to quit his job. Sammy's decision to quit his job at the grocery store shows his development from an immature teenager to a person who will take a position for what he believes in no matter the consequences.
At the beginning of A&P, Sammy notices that three girls have walked into the store with only there bathing suits on. At first, poor Sammy cannot see the girls because he was at register 3 with his back toward the door. When they finally get into his sight, he immediately size the girls up. "The one that caught my eye first was the one in the placid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs." He also gives a description of the other two girls. He says one has "a chubby berry-faces, her lips all bunched together under her nose and the tall one, with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes and a chin that was too long--you know, the kind of girl other girls think is very "striking" and "attractive" but never quite makes it, as they very well know, which is why they like her so much." This comments illustrate his immaturity. Sammy refers to one of the girls as queen. He calls her queen because she seems to be the leader. ...
This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of maturation. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he sees only the physicality of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only observations. As the story progresses, he notices the interactions between the girls, and he even determines the hierarchy of the small dynamic. He observes their actions and how they affect the other patrons of the business. Rather, how the other people view the girl's actions. His thought process is maturing and he starts to see things as an adult might see them.
At the beginning of the story Sammy complains about an older woman, a fifty-year-old "witch" with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, who is waiting to check out her groceries. She gets annoyed with Sammy because he is too busy drooling over the young flesh which has just walked in the door (Updike 1026). The first half-naked girl who walks into the A&P and catches Sammy’s eye is a chunky girl with a two-piece plaid bathing suit on that showed off her "sweet broad soft-looking can" (Updike l026). As if staring at this girl’s backside wasn’t enough, Sammy also noticed "those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit" (Updike 1026).
In the short story A&P by John Updike, the story is told in a first person narrative of a teenage boy working as a cashier in an A&P grocery store on a hot summer day. The story begins with the teenage boy named Sammy becoming preoccupied by a group of three teenage girls that walk into the grocery store wearing bathing suits. Sammy admires the girl's beauty as most nineteen year old adolescent boys would, in a slightly lewd and immature nature. His grammar is flawed and he is clearly not of an upper-class family, his job appears to be a necessity for a son of a family that is not well off. The name he gives the girl who seems to be the object of his desire, Queenie, portrays a social difference from himself. Sammy further imagines the differences in class and living style when he describes Queenie's voice as "kind of tony, the way it ticked over 'picked up' and 'snacks'." He imagines her with aristocratic home life in describing “her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them."Sammy compares his own parents occasions, where they serve their guests "lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with 'They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stenciled on."
Before examining the Northridge event, understanding the naturally occurring hazard that is an earthquake will help to better understand exactly what happened and why it was such an important geological event. With four distinct layers, two layers, the crust and upper portion of the mantle, compose the skin that is the surface layer of the Earth. The crust is not a single, continuous piece. It is actually several different pieces, or plates, that come together to form the puzzle that comprises the surface of the Earth. These plates are in constant motion rubbing against one another. These areas, known as fault lines, where the plates rub up against one another have spots where one plate ”gets stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving. When the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick and is how most of the earthquakes around the world occur” (Wald, 2012). The energy stored from the friction of the two plate...
There is two main types of people in the story "A&P by John Updike". The types are conformity vs rebellion. Sammy in the story is a rebel.
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).
The three most influential people are my sister mom and dad. My sister cause she would always stop me when I was making stupid decisions. One time I was going to stop playing sports just to go mess around with my gangster friends and she wouldn’t let me.