Foreshadowing In John Updike's A & P

This story could make one wonder, how far would you go to get the person of your dreams. Three young ladies walk into the A&P store wearing nothing but bathing suits. The girls catch the attention of Sammy who is the cashier. Sammy watches the girls walk around the store while making mental notes about each one of the girls. When Mr. Lengel the store manager sees the girls, he lets them know that the store policy is to have your shoulders covered and to dress appropriately when you enter the store. This conversation upsets Sammy, so in the moment Sammy spontaneously quits his job in hopes of being the girl’s hero. After Sammy takes off his apron and walks out the door he looks around, but the girls have already gone. Within John Updike’s short story “A&P” the author uses foreshadowing, a dynamic character, and symbolism to show us how life can be unpredictable at times.

John Updike's short story "A & P" recounts how an adolescent supermarket cashier named Sammy has his life changed forever when three girls in bathing suits shop in the store where he works. He is the first person narrator who shapes the tale with his descriptions, attitudes and opinions. He is the protagonist who grows up quickly in a single day and the only round, fully developed character in the tale. As you proceed through the story and become acquainted with Sammy's opinions and ideas, it becomes obvious that Sammy has made the only choice that affords the possibility of real joy and fulfillment in his future. He is ready for a change.

   At first glance, Sammy, the first-person narrator of John Updike's "A & P," would seem to present us with a simple and plausible explanation as to why he quits his job at the grocery store mentioned in the title: he is standing up for the girls that his boss, Lengel, has insulted. He even tries to sell us on this explanation by mentioning how the girls' embarrassment at the hands of the manager makes him feel "scrunchy" inside and by referring to himself as their "unsuspected hero" after he goes through with his "gesture." Upon closer examination, though, it does not seem plausible that Sammy would have quit in defense of girls whom he quite evidently despises, despite the lustful desires

Sammy lets his pride get in the way and by claiming that it is fatal not to quit, he spontaneously scares himself, and deters himself from carry on with his job. He slowly builds the ladder of fallacies, and climbs up step by step, once he does not know where he is anymore, “[his] stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be to [him].” Sammy’s intention of quitting is to impress the girls, and rebels against the conformity, where he does not feel belong to. At the end, we cannot help but wonder, whether he had made a right decision. He quits to defend the girls, who ironically does not witness their “unsuspected hero” since they soon leaves before he quits. When he “punches the No Sale tab” and steps out of the store, he feels the world is going to be hard. Sammy does not make decisions based on logic, he decides based on feelings from the beginning. Although we do not know where his future goes, we know he will disappoint some people that helped him and gave him this

In the story “A&P” by John Updike, Sammy is a cashier working at an A&P store in Massachusetts. The story treads along with the focus being on the three girls wearing bathing suits in the store, gaining Sammy’s undivided attention. The climax of this tale occurs when Sammy decides he has to be the hero and stand up to his boss for embarrassing the girls by quitting. While this decision is certainly unwise, I feel that he was just doing as many young teens would do, make impulse and irrational decisions.

A & P by John Updike took place in a grocery store where the protagonist named Sammy worked in the third check-out slot . One day, Sammy saw three girls in bikinis as they walked into A & P which was nowhere near the beach. He saw something caught his eyes which was the girl in the middle, he described her in a substantial detail about why he admired her and called her Queenie. However, the manager named Lengel saw the three girls in bikinis as they buy a jar of herring snacks for their mother. Therefore, he advised them to leave because they were breaking the store policy. Lengel said, "Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy." (Updike.18). As the girls started to leave, he told Lengel that he quit, Sammy did this to show off what he can do for Queenie. Lengel tried to

Sammy began his grocery clerk glory days as a victim of his own parents' over watchfulness. His parents had known Lengel, the store manager, for years, and took it upon themselves to get Sammy a job. Perhaps his parents believed that doing Sammy's dirty work would somehow shelter Sammy from the so-called "real world," or perhaps they merely wanted the best for their son, and getting him a job was their way of giving Sammy what they felt he was due. Whatever his parents' motives were, the end result was somewhat of a loss of Sammy's independence. Given the circumstances surrounding the rest of the story, it is not unreasonable to assume that Sammy had felt somewhat dependent upon his parents and did not like that dependence at all. But he had never faced the right circumstance that may have potentially given him a reason, or an excuse, to break his ties with his parents and become truly independent. Lengel points out, "Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad . . . You'll feel this for the rest of your life" (Updike 411). Despite this warning, Sammy is more than willing to break the unwritten covenant he has with his parents and attempts

Another main case that happened in the story is when Lengel claims to the girls that the store was not the beach, causing them to become embarrassed. This led to the climax of Sammy quitting his job and proving that it was wrong to treat the girls with disrespect. He then sets his apron and bowtie onto the counter and exits A&P with no struggle considering that few people were inside. Therefore, Sammy has shown the correct expectations for his manager, and hopefully, Lengel will treat his employees with greater respect in the

I wondered why exactly he felt like he had to do that, yet at the same time it made sense. Lengel didn’t have to embarrass the girls, he could have just went about his business and let them be. Especially considering they were already at the check out, and, presumably, about to leave the store. After witnessing what happened, and saying nothing to stop him really, in a way Sammy must have felt bad. So, in a way, quitting was like being defiant towards his higher up, in this case being his manager. He felt like he was saving the girls, in a way, by standing up to him by quitting. He must have thought he couldn’t work for a person that did something like that anymore as well. So even though, without the job things would be much harder, he must have felt like he could no longer work there

Sammy suddenly sees how a girl from her world must be like a crummy place run by crummy people. Lengel then left and told Sammy to ring them up. Sammy finished the checking out of the girls. Sammy believes that they embarrass the girls and offended by the manager’s disregard for the 3 girls. He removed his apron and bow tie and resigned on the spot despite the pain this would cause his parents.

Within the plot of the story, one may observe that there are two sections to this narrative. In the first section, Sammy is merely a passive spectator of the situation while in the second he quickly becomes an active participant. Parallel with this switch to activism, is Sammy’s thoughts on his decision to quit and coincidingly the reader learns his name, giving the idea that the revelation of such, corresponds with his achieving an independent identity. This identity revelation is key to his eventual withdrawal from work. Moving further into the story, the girls are confronted by the manager of the store.

But then again the author never explained any past occurrences at the store that might have led to this, and this might have been just the last straw possibly for Sammy. Maybe he was fed up with his work, and he saw the chance to quit and look tough and manly, also make a big stink in front of "Queenie" and her cronies. (The women in the story) To me this seems very unreasonable to make an ass out of yourself, if it is just for a couple of girls that I'm sure in his mind knew he wasn't going to go anywhere

John Updike’s short story, A&P, takes place on a summer afternoon in a grocery store. It tells the story of three girls shopping while employee, Sammy, observes them and comes to conclusions about the shoppers and his own life. Throughout the story Sammy is arrogant, apathetic and seems to be passive, which shows the reader that a person may be their own worst enemy when they choose not to be active and live life.

In the reading “A&P” by John Updike, the setting plays a giant role for a controversial discussion that is applied to help add effect to answer the theme of the story. The story takes place in a grocery story during the 1960s, about five miles from the beach. It was summertime, and one day a group of girls came into the store with nothing but bathing suits on. During the 1960s, women were expected to be covered in clothes, and not to show off any skin, so when the manager of the store saw the three girls, he confronted them and embarrassed them. “ We want you to decently dressed when you come in here.” (Updike). The fact that the manager said “We” implies that the majority was in favor with the idea that women she be covered. This angered the

The short story I choose to read was by John Updike. The short story is called A&P and is based on a teenager working his shift at the local grocery store. The setting of this story is very important and plays a very key point within the story. This short story was written in 1961, and the view of the narrator often shows the time period in which the story is being told. The Setting of this story is the A&P Grocery store and the views of the other customers also place the setting and atmosphere of the story. The characters views and standpoint in this story are based off of the setting in which the drama takes place. If the setting in this story was different this short story would be completely different.