A & P John Updike Analysis

“The sheep pushing against the carts down the aisle - the girls were walking against the traffic - were pretty hilarious” (Updike A&P). The title of this story is A&P, written by John Updike. The main characters shown in this story are Sammy, The Three Girls, Lengel, and Stokesie.

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

Everybody nowadays wear what they like to wear in public. They do not care about how other people think of their dress. Besides, it is people’s rights to dress themselves freely. However, in the story A&P, written by John Updike, people tend to be more conservative about dressing. The story happens in 1961 in a small town of northern Boston. At that time, people value conformity as their social norm. Main character Sammy works in A&P, and he despises people who act the same. One day, three girls come to the store, and they get insulted by manager Lengel because they just wear bathing suits. Sammy quits the job in A&P because he tries to defend for the girls. In fact, he is motivated by the girls to go against the social norm. After he witnesses

The setting of “A+P,” is a small northern town on the east coast. An era when modesty and dignity was the bases for common culture. The writer lets the reader know it’s about five miles from the beach, and the author Updike is known for growing up in the north east of the United States. The small community is one where everyone is acquainted with each other and in a post war era. The abundance of food and goods at the A+P is indicative of a time after the Second World War and the nation was flooded with products again. This would make the reader believe this to be the late 50’s to early 60’s. If this situation occurred in the year 2012 the young women would have been ignored for the most part. The purchase of herring in sour cream would have

The main character in John Updike's short story “A&P” is Sammy. The story's first-person context gives the reader a unique insight toward the main character's own feelings and choices, as well as the reasons for the choices. The reader is allowed to closely observe Sammy's observations and first impressions of the three girls who come to the grocery store on a summer afternoon in the early 1960s. In order to understand this short story, one must first recognize the social climate of the era, the age of the main character, and the temptation this individual faces.

In John Updike’s “A & P”, he expresses the life of a young boy names Sammy, who works in a small food mart named A & P. It’s a coming of age story that deals with puberty taking over the better of Sammy and trying to come out the hero when in reality he comes out looking like a fool. There is also one other detail that cause inner and outer conflicts with Sammy that lead to life lessons and the realization that not everyone is happy where they’re at in life, but if you work hard enough, anything can happen.

John Updike’s short story A&P is about a boy who’s 19 years old called Sammy, employed at a small town market. He impetuously quits his job as a cashier at the market in protest of the store manager’s treatment of three scantily-clad girls from the “better” part of town who wander in – and the seeming emptiness of this futile gesture. It’s obvious, from the beginning of the short story, the class and social distinctions among the characters.

John Updike’s A&P is a short story filled with numerous themes and messages that are left ambiguous. An obvious theme that is demonstrated in the text is the focus on the expectations that are set for the male and female gender roles in the small town society that are defied. The three female characters are very symbolic in the message Updike attempts to portray in the text. Sammy, the narrator and protagonist, works at the A&P grocery store when three young ladies walk in. He starts to give copious details on all of them and even starts to think about them sexually. The ladies are the center of attention throughout the story, but are only seen as objects to the employees of the A&P. Even though this story revolves around these three women, it’s easy to see a misogynistic view when the women are only seen as sexual objects to the men,

The story of John Updike’s A&P takes place in the point of view of a boy named Sammy. In the story he is a cashier at a grocery store, called A&P at the time, and while he’s checking out an older lady, three girls only wearing bathing suits walk in. One of the girls is a bigger girl, one of them is very tall and not exactly attractive, and the other is the Queen of the group. She led the girls through the store, while Sammy watched them, as it wasn’t a very busy day at the store. Another cashier named Stokesie, who was married with two kids, mentions how he feels faint because the girls are in the middle of town, five miles from the beach, yet they’re wearing bathing suits. The only thing the girls get are fancy herring snacks and they end up in Sammy’s isle, as Stokes, as he’s nicknamed, gets another customer. Right around the time they get to the check out the manager, Lengel, gomes in and sees them. He talks to them, and tells them that people should be dressed in more than just a bathing suit to go to the grocery store. The girls get all embarrassed by this and once they pay

“In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (Updike 1). With the previous quote, would one believe that the storyline is set in a grocery store? In John Updike’s “A&P,” Sammy is the main character. The entire narrative happens through his eyes. Having three out of the ordinary girls walk into the A & P mystified Sammy as well as the other men in the store. The tale follows the girls around while they shop and until they leave. It carefully describes what aisles the girls pass through while Sammy is trying to figure them out. The three strange girls’ activities are distracting and intriguing him to the point that he messes up while ringing up a customer. The story is all about what the people ponder when they meet the girls.

“A&P” by John Updike is a great example of different types of leadership you see in the everyday world. This short story is about a boy, three girls, and a manager, all in this one little gas station towards the coast of Massachusetts that greatly provide views of a couple types of leadership, but in a more relatable way. The three girls, one of them being named Queenie, enter the store dressed inappropriately, Sammy, a boy who is employed there, doesn’t mind and is more attracted to the girls. Unfortunately, his manager, Lengel, is very disapproving of the way the girls are dressed and wants them out of the store. After the girls finish their purchase, Sammy decides to quit to impress them, but unfortunately, they have already left, leaving Sammy without a job and a dent on his reputation. In this story, it is clearly seen that certain character’s bring a leadership style to the story and are very different from each other because of the social status that each character is in.

In the short story “A&P” the author, John Updike, shows that simple parts of American culture can be quite interesting and have significant meaning behind them. Shopping at a supermarket is a common activity in the everyday life of most Americans. Updike makes it a fascinating thing through the mind of a nineteen year old boy. This is a story that talks about negative choices having negative consequences. It also expresses a coming of age type of view. All these points of the short story combined to make an intriguing representation of American life and culture.

The story A&P by John Updike is very interesting in a couple of ways. The story has a great buildup to the climax of Sammy quitting but the ending seems unfinished for me. This is because as we read the story you can tell the after the climax of the story the one thing that is not told is whether the path that Sammy took in quitting his job actually got him to talk to any of the girls. This story I believe did a great job in delivering great detail throughout the story.

Not many people would dare to stand up for what is considered “right” anymore. In Updike’s A&P, Sammy stands up for three girls and quits his job. It all takes place in a town just north of Boston during the 1960’s in a grocery store called A&P where Sammy works. One day three girls walk in with just swimsuits on, which is forbidden, and he just drools over them like the immature boy he is. By the time the girls are ready to check out the manager, Lengel, comes to tell them that their shoulders must be covered. Sammy does not like the way Lengel speaks to them so he quits his job but by the time he goes outside to meet the girls they were already gone. Sammy’s compulsion to quit his job is caused by the girls and his

In the beginning of the year we analyzed short stories and one that stuck out to me was “A+P” by John Updike. While reading the story I was appalled at how the main character (a male) had this weird possessiveness over the female characters. He would repeatedly refer to them as “my girls” and described them with such vividness it became uncomfortable. In class, we discussed the main character and how his point of view impacted the story. In this discussion, I agreed with the fact that men objectify women and how “A+P” clearly showed this.