How Cultural Expectations Affect Both Men And Women

From the moment the girls enter, Sammy describes in massive detail their looks and the way they uphold themselves. As he devotes his entire attention towards Queenie and the other girls he loses focus off of his job requirements and makes a mistake.The reader learns that Sammy has been working at A & P for a while because he is familiar with his customers, the cash register and the aisle. For instance, in paragraph 1 he labels his customer a witch because he wasn’t sure if he

   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

Although it turns his life to unordinary, Sammy views the girls as a refreshing and escaping scene for himself. He was used to seeing the regular, ordinary customers that he referred to as sheep. Something about the girls demeanor when entering “A&P” left Sammy with a inspirational, riving feeling. Porter later in his article discusses why he thought Sammy quit his job, which ultimately made his life change. He viewed it as Sammy making a gesture as both a statement towards the girls decency and a rejection of “A&P” and the misdirected values for which the store held. The action that Sammy made was an exaggerated result from his youth. His action does not diminish from the simple goodness of his chivalric intent, nor does it take away the importance of his personal commitment. Although Sammy knows that he will feel this for the rest of his life and that he separated himself from the flock and the “A&P” crowd. Sammy chose to set himself against the majority. But Sammy also understood that he could not start something and not follow through with it whether it made his life ordinary or not. Once Sammy realized that not to follow the voice of conscience is to be false to ones own integrity and would be living a lie, he chose to live an honest and significant life instead.

This Story takes place in 1961, in a small New England town 's “A&P” grocery store. Sammy, the narrator, is introduced as a grocery checker and an observer of the store 's patrons. He finds himself fascinated by a particular group of girls. Just in from the beach and still in their bathing suits, they are a stark contrast, to the otherwise plain store interior. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of maturation. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he sees only the physicality of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only observations. It fascinates Sammy because he has never seen any girls like that come into the store especially Queenie. As they go about their errands, Sammy observes the reactions, of the other customers, to this trio of young women. Sammy wants to get out and do what teenagers do while on summer break and not just work in their parents store. In “A&P”, the social class and society expectations come hand in hand depending on the symbols throughout the story, in fact it allows the readers to get a full understanding of what went on in Sammy 's “World”.

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,

Sammy fellow coworkers also feel the relentless temptations that the girls have on the male workers in A&P. Sammy observes some of his coworker’s reactions to towards the girl’s appearance and how the can not resist acting prudish as they gaze and make lewd remarks to one another as their comments seemed to be derived from hormones. McMahon the worker who works in the meat department as a butcher who is an older gentleman, well maybe not gentlemen, but more of a cad that comes in contact with these three girls and is described to be “patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints.” (Updike

In A&P, Updike describes Sammy as the protagonist working as a cashier in a supermarket under the management that is friends of his parents Lengel. Sammy is a very observant young man who notices and labels the customers in the supermarket especially on this specific day. When three girls entered the store in their bathing suits. After walking around the supermarket, one of the girls wants to purchase a can of herring snacks. Lengel refuses to interest them because he thinks they were dressed inappropriate, but Sammy rings up the herring snacks and quits his job to show heroism. Therefore, Sammy social maturity before and after the moment when the girls walked into the store shows a forced coming of age in Sammy.

In John Updike’s story “A&P,” we are treated to the scene of an ordinary store as told through the eyes of the narrator, Sammy. Throughout the story he looks upon the aisles with a dour eye, even going so far as to call the occupants “sheep” (Updike 164). The exceptions to this contempt are three girls that are obviously from a different, more affluent town, whom Sammy immediately takes a liking to upon seeing them. When Sammy’s manager, Lengel, comments that they are indecent, Sammy decides to quit his job to “…be their unexpected hero.” While this decision may seem, and is, incredibly childish, it is more layered than a simple act of amorism. Indeed, Sammy’s decision to quit his job in “A&P” is one that is

It is likely that this was not the last time in Sammy’s life where his expectations would not be met. One of the main reasons Sammy becomes so infatuated and enamored with the leader of the girls, whom he dubs “Queenie,” is that to him, she is representative of an upper class life. As Queenie holds the herring snacks, Sammy is able to visualize how they will be utilized later “All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them” (Updike 4). Sammy hopes to one day be apart of that section of society, he dreams to leave the “Schlitz in tall glasses” in the dust, and for him to do so, the A&P must be out of his

A&P 1. Why did Sammy quit his job? Sammy quits his job because he doesn't like the way girls were treated by his boss Lengel and he wanted to impress the girls. He leaves the store with the hope that girls are going to see how heroic he is to quit.

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

"So I say 'I quit' to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me." When Sammy quits his job, it is obvious he is doing out of envy for these girls. He mentions that he was hoping for the girls to stop and watch him but after he quits and walks out of the A&P grocery store, the girls are gone. "I look around for my girls, but they are gone, of course." Sammy's jealousy towards the girls has grown from their good looks to their parents parties to his quitting his job just so they notice him, which they

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

Antonio Gramsci’s hegemony defined as the dominance of one group over another has been occurring since the beginning of time. It is where a dominant force exerts its influence in society and exert their own power over other groups. Hegemony is seen with the cultural dominance of male over female. Because of this dominance men have assumed the right to determine what is masculine and what is not. With hegemony, here will be always an opposing force that plans a strategy in order to combat and defeat their adversary. Homosexuality is often depicted as inferiority. Heterosexual men see homosexual men as adversary to be defeated. Men has defined their masculinity by very specific set of behavior, habits and activities acting strong, being involved in sports and becoming engineer or doctors. Any men who do not behave according to these characteristics is viewed as “effeminate”. A young man like the actor in the movie who does not engage in vigorous sports but is interested in theater and poetry and shows sensitivity is perceived as being a “Sister Boy” a code word for as being “Gay”. This is a hint that a lack of what society perceives as masculinity is linked to homosexuality. Homosexuals are attracted to people of their gender. Homosexuals are usually human beings very aware of their gender, their masculinity or femininity while being attracted to members of the same sex or gender. In the movie, this very sensitive and apparently fragile young man falls in love with an older

In American society, there is an obvious gender hierarchy in which men are viewed as strong, powerful, and valuable while women are viewed as weak and timid. Women face this challenge every day, and more prominently when they are trying to go against the hierarchy. Regardless of how many social norms or “power ceilings” that women break, they constantly face messages that perpetuate stereotypes, which reinforces this gender hierarchy. At the same time, men are also facing similar, gender-related pressures. Because men are on the top of the social hierarchy, there is an expectation that they be strong, brave, and confident. This causes an undue burden on the men that are unable to fulfill these gendered expectations.