Cashiering Characterization

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Nothing in life is as it seems. While this ancient quote sounds like a cliché, whoever the author was had the right idea. Everything in life has a deeper meaning, especially in Literature. One may read something and receive a concrete message, when in reality even the most minute of words have the largest of meanings. This especially happens with characters in short stories. According to Dictionary.com, the word characterization is a “portrayal or description.” In “A&P”, for example, which is a simple story about a teenager with a summer job, characterization is seen through the setting, point of view, and symbolism. Firstly, the main character Sammy can be described based on his surroundings. He works in a grocery store in the Northeast near the beach in a town that resembled the ideal United Staes suburb in the 1950s. The reader later finds out that he is a teenager working a simple summer job. So by the setting alone one can see Sammy as the simple American teenager working in Small Town, USA. The setting also plays a major part later in the story which helps the reader understand Sammy even more. Due to the temperature and the store’s proximity to the beach, it allowed for the girls to come in wearing their bathing suits which is when the reader really gets to know Sammy. The setting helped described Sammy and work with point of view to reinforce his traits. Secondly, the point of view describes Sammy even more because one of the main concepts of a short story is that characters can be described based on how they describe their surroundings. As mentioned earlier, Sammy is a typical American teenager working a summer job now that school is out. Standing behind the register, one can see how Sammy reacts with his customers and... ... middle of paper ... ...gnificance of the characterization to the meaning of the story is that each literary device not only describes Sammy but the story itself. Each part of Updike’s writing is significant because it is written based on how a textbook short story should look. Updike uses the setting, point of view, and symbolism through his characters so that the reader gets a better understanding of what’s going on through their own eyes, not just Sammy’s. Works Cited "characterization." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 21 Feb. 2014. Stearns, Jennie, Jennifer A. Sandlin, and Jake Burdick. "Resistance On Aisle Three?: Exploring The Big Curriculum Of Consumption And The (Im)Possibility Of Resistance In John Updike's 'A&P'." Curriculum Inquiry 41.3 (2011): 394-415. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. Updike, John. "A&P." Tiger-Town. N.p., 1961. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

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