Dignity In John Updike's A & P

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

Many stores have policies. One is usually “No Shoes, No Shirts, No Service.”. This is one of the reasons why the manager, Lengel, approached the girls. Many people take the term “decently dressed” in different ways, but an average person thinks shirts, shorts, and sandals are to be worn when entering store. The girls argued that what they were wearing, which was just bikinis, was being decently dressed. Lengel explained to the girls that it was store policy to be covered and it is reinforced on all customers. He explains that they need to be covered when coming into the store and “policy is policy”. This policy is used for many reasons, but in this situation, it is enforced to make sure that the employees working concentrate on their job. An example of why this policy exists was shown at the beginning of the story while Sammy was checking out a customer, which was brought up in the second paragraph earlier. Sammy was being selfish, not thinking about the stores policy, and disregarding Lengels’ comments to the

Realizing the girls were gone and his so called heroic gesture was done for nothing; he stared back into the store. Staring back, he saw Lengel take his place at the cash register. Lengels face became dark and his back stiffened; Sammy compared it to looking at someone that got injected with iron. After quitting, he has a lot of regret because it dawned on him, in the last sentence. He said “…my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” The question sometimes at the end of a story is what happens now? Why not before, when he was standing in the store, think harder? Sammy was only wanting to impress the girls and did a selfish act and quit his job, not thinking of his future after walking out. Why not finish the day instead of making another person complete the job you left behind? There are many questions that the narrator left us but no answers given. The only thing the narrator leaves is for one to foreshadow, which leads up to the question of whether it was a selfish act to quit, or a sacrifice. It was a selfish act that will make his life difficult after the story ends. Another question was if Sammy cared about the girls’ dignity? The answer is no because he had regret afterward, when the girls vanished. The author, John Updike, believes it was a sacrifice because he states, “he sees him [Sammy] as a typical, well intentioned