John Updike A & P Setting Analysis

Unwarranted Decisions Many people act foolishly, some based on common sense and past experience and some based on impulse and reckless idealism. In “The A&P” by John Updike, the cashier quit while acting unwarranted, he acted on intangible reasons, assumptions, while not thinking of the consequences. Many who act unwarranted end up hurting themselves and occasionally others because they do not think of the backlash that could occur based off their rash and uninformed decisions. Many awful events in history were due to unwarranted acts, the Iraq War for instance, the US decided to act militarily without tangible fact and wasted billions of dollars and killed many innocent people.

A&P at first seemed to me like a story about a young boy attracted to a girl who came into a A&P store where he worked. She was scolded by his boss, causing Sammy, the narrator of the story, to became upset and quit his job. Sacrifices were made then later on regretted. Reading this story again for a second time, I was able to understand it more. The story at first seemed to rush in with three girls arriving at the store. As you read on there is a lot of details. This story expressed that sometimes we have to grow up and make the right decisions regardless of the situations we may encounter.

In John Updike’s “A&P,” the diction and imagery used to describe the setting emphasize that while heroism is noteworthy, false heroism deserves no reward.

Working at a grocery store can sometimes be quite a place where someone comes to grips with the facts of life or just a place to be entertained.

Standing behind the counter, a cashier sees hundreds of people every day. After a while, they tend to blur together, eventually becoming indistinguishable. John Updike’s short story, A & P, examines the effects of this phenomenon. Both cashiers and customers view the opposite as nonhuman, as drones who are predictable and expected to do everything they need to and nothing more. But A & P challenges this expectation through the narration of Sammy, a young cashier whose life is changed when three girls in bathing suits walk into his A&P supermarket.

The short story "A&P", by John Updike, is narrated by the main character who is a nineteen year old boy named Sammy. Cashiering at work on a typical summer day, Sammy finds himself mooning over some attractive girls, whose immodest attire distract him from his job. When caught in an embarrassing circumstance, Sammy’s arrogance, immaturity, and disloyalty surge causing him to make a costly decision that will bear heavy consequences.

In the story, “A&P”, by John Updike, the main character, Sammy is a young cashier at what appears to be an “all purpose” type of store in a very predictable, small town. Sammy and the people of that town were having an ordinary day at the store until three young girls walk in only wearing their bathing suits and catches everyone’s attention. Especially, catching the attention of a young cashier named Sammy. As the girls are checking out, the manager ridicules them in front of everyone for what they are wearing, so Sammy quits job right there in order to show off and cause ruckus in the store to catch the girl’s attention.

This is a quite interesting story.The author chose a familiar scene as the background and the character Sammy was just an ordinary nineteen-years old cashier.This story seems like described a small argument between three girls who wore bathing suits and the manager who worked at A&P.And Sammy did support the three girls by quitting the job.It is easy to know what this story talking about,but to understand the deep meaning,we still have to think a lot after read this story.

A&P is a short story; the climax comes very quick when the story starts. Sammy works at some type of grocery store and looks like his parents had got him the job since they are friends with the manger of the store. Sammy becomes alerted with 3 girls wearing bathing suits walk into the store. Customers policy for the store is for every customer is wear clothing above the shoulder with most body parts covered. As the girls approach the register where Sammy is working, the manger steps out from his office. Sammy starts to ring up the girls and the manger notices the girls and starts to walk toward them. Meanwhile Sammy finishes scanning the items and awaits the girls to hand him money. The tallest and most attractive girl who seems to be

The story "A & P" by John Updike is a tale of a young man who lets his desires and his anger get a little to far ahead of him and in the end winds up quitting his job. The main character of the story is Sammy. An eighteen year old boy from a small suburb outside Boston who works at an A & P Supermarket. Sammy seems like an average boy who seems a tad bit tired of the regular customers who come into his store. Regular customers including those older married women with multiple kids, the overweight lady who has no regrets wearing her bathing suit that doesnt quite cover, and the nit picking old ladies who spend years trying to catch an error by a cashier. Its the last ditch effort to make an impression on a beautiful young lady that ends up leaving Sammy unemployed. The story starts out in an A & P outside of Boston when in through the door walks three young lady sporting nothing except for revealing two piece bathing suits. Quickly noticed by Sammy, he changes his focus towards the three girls and critiques them in his head as he watches them shop about the store. Its the leader of the pack, which Sammy coins the nickname Queenie, that really catches his eye. A tall brown haired girl whose shoulder straps had fallen off of her shoulders and just dangled around her arms. Entranced by her beauty and feeling blessed when Queenie and her pack enter Sammys line, he begins to ring up her can of fancy herring snacks.