Explication Essay of a&P by John Updike

Before the girls enter the store, Sammy is unaware that the setting he is so judgmental of reflects his own life. Sammy feels that he is better than the rest of people at the A&P, referring to them as "sheep" and "house-slaves" because they never break from their daily routines. He also condescendingly talks about "whatever it is they[the

Sammy is a 19-year-old boy conveying a cocky but cute male attitude. He describes three girls entering the A & P, setting the tone of the story. "In walk these three girls in

There is a sudden change in Sammy's attitude toward the girls throughout the story. At first, Sammy and his friend's he work

When Lengel sees the girls at the checkout counter, he says, “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” As the girls leave the in a hurry, Sammy says, “I quit.” Sammy hopes that the girls will hear, but they don’t and just keep on walking out to their car. Lengel reassures Sammy that he doesn’t want to quit, but Sammy wants to be these girls hero. As Sammy gets out to the parking lot, he looks around for the girls. He hoped that they would wait for him. Sammy thinks that he could hook-up with Queenie if he quits his job.

The girls, despite their obvious fashion faux-pas, carry themselves with a certain confidence and individuality that is rare in this society. Updike has Sammy refer to the other customers as sheep, pigs, house slaves, and even as having a fuselage- revealing how ‘empty’ these citizens are. The references to sheep are clear symbols for the conformity of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The trend (or revolution) towards non-conformity is quickly approaching as the three girls are leaders of this new movement.

Sammy based his opinion of what part of society the shoppers belonged to by the items they would purchase. The girl that he favored was purchasing some kind of fish in a can with some sort of fancy sauce, not usually something that a lower class citizen would purchase. He figured since she was purchasing such a fancy item, she must be part of the higher class society, which he was not. He wished that he could be and he envied the fact that she was part of a society where they could do anything they wanted to do. To be able to buy and wear whatever pleased them. To say whatever it is they wanted to say. It is also present when the store manager threatened Sammy when he quit his job. By saying to Sammy, “you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” and “you’ll feel this for the rest of your life” (Updike 21), not only is he wanting to keep control of him, he is telling Sammy that he and his family will be looked at differently. They will be moved into a lower class and by quitting, not only is he going to ruin his life, he will affect the life of the rest of his family as

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,

As people age, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experiences. From the time a child turns eighteen and becomes an adult, they are required to deal with the realities of the real world and learn how to handle its responsibilities. In John Updike's short story, "A&P", the narrator Sammy, a young boy of nineteen, makes a major change to his life fueled by nothing more than his immaturity and desire to do what he wants and because of that, he has do deal with the consequences.

The short story “A & P” by John Updike is about a young man’s decision to stand up for others or, in the other characters’ opinions, make a foolish decision by abandoning his responsibility. At first he believes his decision is the right thing, quitting his job for how the girls were being treated. Then when he gets outside of the store, he realizes the world he just left behind, regrets his decision, and begins to question his actions. He starts to overthink what the world has to offer him, making his worldview change from underrating to overrating. His “unsure of the world’s dangers” worldview in the beginning changes to overrating the dangers of the future ahead at the end of the story causing Sammy to change throughout “A & P”.

In a continuing attempt to reveal this societal conflict, Updike introduces the character of Lengel, the manager. He accosts the girls and starts to make a scene accusing them of being indecent: “‘Girls, I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy.’ He turns his back. That’s policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What others want is juvenile delinquency” (Updike, 600). When the store manager confronts three girls in swimsuits because of their indecency (lack of proper clothes), they are forced to leave humiliated. At this moment Sammy makes the choice to quit his job in protest of the manager’s handling of the situation. In his mind, and arguably in John Updike’s mind, the standards of walking into a grocery store in a bathing suit and humiliating someone in front of other people are both unacceptable. This part of the story is pivotal for one main reason: a voice in the business community is speaking. As a manager at A & P, Lengel is the voice of The Establishment and guards the community ethics (Porter, 321). Queenie’s (the ringleader of the girls) blush is what moves Sammy to action. Here are three girls who came in from the beach to purchase only one thing, and this kingpin is embarrassing them in order to maintain an aura of morality, decency,

He is jaded with his life as a cashier and abhors the customers in the grocery store, making negative and sarcastic comments such as “sheep” and “houseslaves”. (Updike, 5) Not only does he make remarks about the customers but he also does it to his co-workers: “…he thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day, maybe in 1990 when it’s called the Great Alexandrov and Petrooshki Tea Company or something” (Updike, 9) Sammy thinks that he can see through the actions of everyone without even getting to know most of the people, as he judges each and every person in the A&P. However, his world changes when three girls, dressed only in swimsuits, enter the A&P to purchase snacks. His description of the three girls is quite sexist, referring to one of them with "a chin that is too

Even though Sammy’s mindset is childlike, he still tries to portray himself in an adult manner. The reader can observe throughout the story the way in which Sammy thinks to be immature and quick to judge. Having his concentration only on the girls, he made a mistake while ringing up a customer. Because he is so focused on how the girls are dressed and what they are up to, he has full descriptions of each girl and thinks he has them all figured out. He points out the leader and even names her “Queenie” while not giving the other two as much attention. The reader can see how Sammy sort of mocks some of the customers when he sees Lengel “checking the sheep through” (Updike 435). Sammy’s priority, which should only be ringing up customers, but happens to be seeing what the girls are up

In “A&P,” John Updike uses Sammy’s point of view to demonstrate that he is not as altruistic and kind as he thinks he is in order to demonstrate that people frequently ignore their own faults to criticize others. At the beginning of the short story, Sammy proves to be a judgmental type of person. For instance, he describes one of Queenie’s friends as “the kind of girl other girls think is very ‘striking’ and ‘attractive’ but never quite makes it” (Updike). Because his inner thoughts betray him as one who cares too much about a person’s appearance, it comes as a surprise when he later criticizes his manager for saying that the three girls in bathing suits are too scantily clad. He does not even realize that he is to be blamed for the same type

As I began to read A & P by, John Updike, I found Sammy to be a jerk. He was judging the girls based on how their swimwear looked on them, on how skinny or fat they were, and making assumptions on the one girl who he deemed to be the leader by the way she held her head and walked. He considered the other girls brainless like sheep because they followed her around the store.

So Sammy stands up for the girls and voices his opinion and then he quits hos job thinking they will thank him and wait outside for him. So he goes outside to go see the girls and they already left the parking lot. He then realizes that he made mistake and he shouldn’t of quit his job because his parents and the manger are really good friends. In A&P the author John Updike uses characterization to help develop the characters and the character traits to who are reading this short story. The main character, Sammy, is a good developed character. The reaction of Sammy to what the conflict involving three good looking girls and the manager of the store shows his responsiveness that he wants to change. The manager is named Lengel, and the customers, are a good example of what a flat and what a barely developed character. The manager named Lengel is an original boss who always does the right thing when it comes to rules. The main