A & P: Why Sammy Quit Essay

In "A&P," Sammy is initially drawn to three girls, Queenie, Plaid, and Big Tall Goony Goony, perusing the grocery store and while he is drawn to the leader of the group, Queenie, he soon begins to note how they are a contrast of what middle-class suburbanites consider to be acceptable. Sammy notes,

When three young teenage girls enter the store wearing nothing but bathing suits, things begin to change for Sammy. Sammy takes notice of the actions of the girls; how they go against the normal “traffic flow” of the supermarket and break the social rules of society with their attire. It is these attributes that attract Sammy to them, as they represent freedom and escape from the life he finds himself in. When Lengel approaches them and reprimands them for what they are wearing, Sammy quits in the hopes of becoming the girls unsuspected hero.

Sammy, having heard enough of Lengel humiliating the girls, takes his heroic stand announcing that “he quit.” He even takes off his apron that had his name personally stitch on it and his bow tie. Another reason why Sammy quit the store probably gravitates toward Queenie and he may have wanted to talk to her, but Lengel ruined his chance by interfering. For example, Sammy said, "remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside I punched the No Sale tab.” He probably wanted to make Queenie blush by giving her compliments, but Lengel embarrassed her by making judgment due to her outfit and the situation definitely had an effect on Sammy since he punched the machine. Clearly, Sammy wanted the attention and was hoping the girls will give him some recognition for defending them, which became a lost cause and once he realized that his outburst didn’t attract the girls, his intentions changed. Sammy quit displaying that he’s becoming more independent as well as his transition to adulthood while at the same time defending the girls. It would also appear that he might’ve relied on his parents for some time. During the conversation between Sammy and Lengel before making his rash decision to quit, Lengel said, “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad,” implying that he will disappoint his parents if they quit because his parents are a friend of Lengel’s and they pretty much got Sammy the job at A&P. This shows that his parents’ efforts to get him the job would be a waste of time on

To begin with, Sammy shows a rude attitude through the story. He indicates little regard for other people’s age or knowledge. To illustrate, Sammy asserts the old aged customer, who reprimands Sammy for scanning her item two times while he is gawking at the girls, is “a witch about fifty … [who] would have burned her over in Salem” (Updike 320). Sammy’s despise toward this old lady—in fact shoppers—is perceptible. Also, when Sammy quits A&P, he talks discourteously to his manager Lengel. The readers soom comes to discover that Lengel is a friend of Sammy’s parents. Lengel attempts persude Sammy from making his rash decision, pointing out that he does not want to do to this to his

Sammy is the only character in this story who asserts his individuality. Two of the girls are simply following their leader, and Queenie is easily embarrassed and capitulates to Lengel. The other shoppers

John Updike presents significant items to represent certain points in the story like the girls bathing suits, the herring snacks, and the sheep. When the girls walk into the A&P, they caused a disruption mainly because of what they were wearing, bathing suits. During that time, women were expected to be fully clothed when entering a store or else they drew attention to their sexuality, which Sammy noticed quickly. As everyone reacted to their bathing suits it later represented a kind of freedom to Sammy. After Lengal body shames them saying, “Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy” (Updike 20), it crushed Sammy’s freedom feeling, so he reacted. Sammy also feels the contrast between the girls and the sheep as they try to purchase

In the story “A+P”, Sammy is immediately interested in the three females that enter the grocery store. His interest possibly provoked by the natural tendency of being a young teenage boy and they being three girls dressed in bathing suites alone. Once the three girls make their way through the grocery store, Sammy immediately begins making his own judgment of their character based on the way they walk and the way they look. Sammy while observing the three girls, names the middle girl, “Queenie” simply based on her appearance and the way she walks. He describes Queenie in a condescending way, “She didn’t look around, not this queen, and she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima-donna legs. She came down a little harder on her heels…” (Updike 259) After watching the girls walk through the grocery store to find their item he insults their intelligence without having spoken to them, “…(do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz

Infrequency rather than frequency triggers the events that occur in the A&P grocery store. The sexually appealing nature of the girls provokes Sammy’s carnal appetite and engenders rebellious feelings towards conformity as well. This allows him to realize that his life has been tailored to that of the mundane lives of the other A&P employees and customers. However, this epiphany leads Sammy to act impulsively when the girls are being admonished for their revealing attire by Lengel. Lengel, the conventional and austere store manager, further embodies the conformity that surrounds Sammy as Lengel reprimands the girls for wearing bathing suits in a grocery store. As Sammy sees his manager embarrassing the girls, Sammy has the choice of being a “sheep” or breaking out of the conformed structure of the A&P store, such as the girls has done. Sammy is refreshed by the uniqueness the girls bring, and he also wants to be part of that. This shows that he wants to protect what the girls and what they represent, which is contrast to conformity. Sammy ultimately decides to defend the girls’ honor by quitting his job, and thus makes the statement of not being a “sheep” that is mindlessly led by society. Although this decision was driven partly by carnal feelings, it was primarily out of impulse and curiosity of what lies beyond the restricted borders of normalcy in the A&P grocery store. Even though Sammy quit his job for the girls,

From the beginning of the story, it is clear that Sammy does not likes his job, nor is he fond of the customers and people he is surrounded by each day. To Sammy, they are nothing more than "sheep" going through the motions of life. "I bet you could set

      A more likely explanation for Sammy's abrupt resignation from his job is his complete boredom with it. This dissatisfaction with his work situation is plainly seen in his regard for a group that Sammy holds in even more contempt than the girls: the regular, paying customers. His references to them as "sheep," "houseslaves" and "pigs" reveals his attitude toward the group that keeps his employer in business--and Sammy in a job that he hates. His diatribe in the story's beginning directed at the "witch" who points out to him that he rang up the same purchase twice shows the unreasonable nature of this contempt for the customers: the mistake was quite clearly Sammy's fault, yet he lashes out at a customer who simply did what any

Sammy's play continues as he his eyes follow the three girls around the store, and he notes the way that the one he has named "Queenie" is definitely the leader. She would "buzz to the other two, who kind of huddled against her for relief" (28). Sammy sees this as a game of follow-the-leader as well as a game of hide-and-seek, because, as Queenie "led them, the other two [would] peek around and make their shoulders round" (27).

This imagery shows the kind of scandalous clothing that they were wearing giving them the power to bring attention and desire to Sammy and his coworkers. They stood no chance to these appealing looks that the girls had with the help of the bathing suits and the environment that they were in as Sammy describes “You know, it’s one thing in to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, where what with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway, and another thing in the cool of the A & P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checker-board green-and-cream rubber-tile floor.” (Updike 165). This also shows that Sammy can not control himself once he unleashes his descriptive imagination when thinking about Queenie and her friends walking through the store.

The condescending tone in which Sammy describes the A&P and its shoppers, referring to them as “the sheep” (Updike 17) and “houseslaves” (Updike 18), reflects the superiority and disdain he feels towards them.

From the beginning of the story it clear that the protagonist Sammy is dissatisfied with his job as a grocery clerk. He is disenchanted by the dogmatic routine of his suburban middle-class customers whom he constantly refers to as sheep. Dehumanization does not just stop with the customers as Sammy himself feels as though he is lacking individuality by the repetitive, mindless routine of his job.

As the girls continue their journey throughout the store, Sammy can’t help but to notice anything and everything that they did. As they proceed, they grab fancy herring snacks and walk into Sammy’s checkout isle. Because they decided to go into Sammy’s lane might not have had anything to do with Sammy at all, however he took it as if he was chosen specifically because Queenie had some sort of attraction to him. Sammy instantly becomes emotionally attached to Queenie as he rings her up, even going so far that he fantasizes about the life he could have with her, and how much better his life would be with her in it. In the midst of Sammy’s daze, his boss, Lengel, emerges from his office to reprimand the group of girls for their attire. Lengel makes a scene, and publicly embarrasses the girls. As the girls scurry away to Queenie’s mother’s car, Sammy makes a desperate final attempt to impress Queenie by quitting his job and standing up for them. Lengel seemingly realizes what Sammy is trying to do, and offers him an out. Because of Lengel’s good relationship with Sammy’s parents, Lengel says, “Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad.” Although Sammy is given the opportunity to take back his foolish act, Sammy tells us, “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture, it’s fatal not to go through with it.” This points to Sammy’s immaturity, his only