Integrity In A & P Updike

She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun seems to never hit, at the top of the backs of her legs"( Updike 596). Once Sammy finished his portrayal of the girl he noticed he had a item in his hand and could not figure out if he had rang it up or not. Sammy proceeded to ring up the item which he had already done, and got himself in trouble with a customer who proceeded to yell at him. Sammy's immaturity can be explained here because he let the presence of the girls interfere with his work. Once the woman was gone Sammy went on to describe the other girls. He says, " there was this one, with one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose, this one, and a tall one, with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes, and a chin that was too long- you know, the kind of girl that other girls think is very "striking" and "attractive" but never quite makes it, as they very well know, which is why they like her so much" (Updike 596). As you can see, Sammy shows his immaturity by going on a tangent only to describe the physical attributes of the girls and does not seem to care about anything else.

rude, judgmental and has a general absence of duty. Being a normal young person, Sammy does not hold particularly regard for grown-ups by any means. This is first clear by they way he alludes to the lady whose things he rang up wrong as "witch around fifty" furthermore y how he says that "on the off chance that she'd been conceived at the perfect time they would have blazed her in Salem". Sammy additionally indicates disregard toward the grown-up in the dark jeans by saying "what do these bums do with all that pineapple squeeze?" an attribute that is appeared all through the story is Sammy's faultless perception abilities.

On the surface, the hero of John Updike's much-anthologized short story "A&P" does not seem like a hero on the level of an Odysseus or a Hercules. Sammy is a cashier at a local grocery store. However, when three girls wearing bathing suits enter the A&P, Sammy begins to experience a call to action. For the first time in his life, he takes a stand when he feels as if the pretty girls are being treated with a lack of respect. Sammy feels the first stirrings of rebellion within him, as he chafes against the constraints of his life. Campbell divides the three parts of the hero's quest into a circular journey of departure, initiation, and return. Over the course of "A&P" Sammy makes his 'departure' into the world of the hero.

John Updike’s “A&P” tells the story of what starts out as a typical summer afternoon at the titular grocery store, through the eyes of 19 year old cashier, Sammy. The lazy summer afternoon at the quiet A&P is quickly thrown into a state of quiet chaos, as three bikini-clad young women stroll into the store, inevitably leading to a confrontation over their state of dress, or lack thereof, between the store manager, Lengel, and the three girls. As the confrontation plays out, Sammy begins to evaluate the state of his life and future, eventually leading to his rash decision to quit his job, right then and there.

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.

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

Originally when the girls come into the store Sammy thought the three girls were ignorant and foolish. This is seen from his lack of understanding of women “You never know for sure how girls’ minds work” (Updike 1) When Sammy says this he reveals what he really thinks of women. This not only shows he does not understand women but also how he assumes without previous knowledge that these three girls were ignorant. Sammy assumes they are ignorant because they do not see things the same way or do not see eye to eye. Sammy shows more of this when he says “Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn’t help it” (Updike 2). Sammy assumes that just because they are girls that they lack intelligence that men possess. He thinks that the girls should be afraid or fearful for trying to stand up for their cause. Sammy also does not view the girls as beings but rather objects. As in the story Sammy says “It is alright for those young girls to walk around in their bathing suits, but other women with six children and varicose veins, should put on some clothes.” (Updike 3) Based on this we can conclude that Sammy is not as interested in the

In John Updike’s coming of age story “A&P,” the protagonist Sammy sees what he believes to be an unfair act to three teenage girls in bikini in the grocery store. He makes an immature decision and quits in front of his manager that decided to address the girls about their clothing choice in front of the entire grocery store, instead of talking to them in private. Unfortunately, the teenage girls do not notice Sammy’s heroic act, and he is left alone in the parking lot to face the repercussions of his childish actions. John Updike chooses to write in first-person, so the reader gets to know the narrator’s real character. In his short story “A&P,” John Updike demonstrates that Sammy is an immature character immaturity from his disrespectful personality, judgmental attitude, and misogynist beliefs.

The short story “A & P,” tells the story of a nineteen-year-old boy named Sammy who works in the local town grocery store. Sammy is the narrator of the story; one day while he was working at the cash register, three girls wearing nothing but bathing suits walk in. He instantaneously notices the girls, one in particular. He named her Queenie and she is seen as the leader or ‘queen bee’ of the three girls. As these girls walk through the grocery store they start to create a scene and get the attention of all the other customers, store manager, and especially Sammy. Sammy begins to imagine what the girls are like and puts different characteristics with each one. He notices their social class and compares it to his own. The reader gets the

Sammy is shallow and sexist in the way he has named these young women according to his first impression of their bodies and behaviors. Patrick W. Shaw notes that "Sammy knows what is on each aisle in the store and constantly thinks of what is inside bottles, cans, and jars; but he has no idea what is inside the girls, no sensitivity to their psychology or sexual subtlety. His awareness stops with their sweet cans and ice-cream breasts" (322). Sammy further demonstrates his childishness and chauvinism by commenting on the mental abilities of the girls: "You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?)" (27).

Throughout the story the author John Updike depicts Sammy’s character as someone judgmental towards other people. Such as his co-workers, customers and even family. He’s constantly judging others, whether it be their looks or their way of being; “She’s one of those cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows…”. Implying that this woman has nothing better to do with her daily life than to be there to bother him. In addition, Sammy also refers to one of his coworker’s attitude towards the girls. Sammy seems to be criticizing them; forgetting that he himself has been doing the same thing to the girls since they walked in the store. “All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints.” He later goes on and says he’s starting to feel sorry for the girls. Not realizing he was making the same mistake as his coworker. Finally, Sammy is also very quick to judge the main girl Queenie to be of a higher social class just based on how she speaks. “Her voice kind of startled me,

When the girls come up to his register to check out at the same time his manager notices the girls and he comes over to Sammy’s register. His manager then proceeds to tell the girls that if they are to shop in the A&P that they must be dressed decently. Of course this embarrases the girls and they walk out feeling uncomfortable. As the girls are walking out of the store Sammy, thinking he is doing the right thing, says he wants to quit and leaves the store to find the girls but by the time he leaves the store the girls are long gone. But, when he leaves he is soon struck with the sudden realization that life is not going to be any easier after

Sammy’s first-person voice is conflicted as his hormones and disillusionment lead him to both admire and denigrate females, but ultimately, he stands by his momentary act of defiant faux-chivalry. With hormones raging at the appearance of three shapely bathing suits, Sammy is focused on “a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it” (Updike 32), and in the next instant he feels contempt for “a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows” (32). He visually stalks the swimsuit girls around the store, admiring one’s “long white prima donna legs…[and] this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light” (33) then derisively compares that vision to “women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs and nobody, including them, could care less” (34).

The short story “A&P” written by John Updike, is about three girls who change Sammy’s life. The three girls came from the beach and are not dressed properly to enter a grocery store called A&P. Sammy, the main character, is a check out clerk, and observes every detail about the girls. Sam even gives each of the girls a name. His favorite is “Queenie.” Sammy is obviously the type of guy who doesn’t get a lot of girls. Sam has a conflict of person vs. society. Because of his dead end job, obsession with Queenie, and his noble act to save the girls from embarrassment, Sammy has a conflict between himself and society.

When the girls disrupt the patterns of the store, the one-way patterns of Sammy's life are also disrupted, causing him to reflect on his life. As Sammy looks at the girls, he first notices the areas on them where the sun has affected their skin tone, and he becomes infatuated with these areas since he generally sees women "varicose veins" and "no eyebrows" underneath the fluorescent lights of the store. These sun kissed areas along with their bathing suits are so distracting to Sammy that he breaks normal routine and makes a mistake, an unusual occurrence, while checking out the "cash-register-watcher" as he has always done. Sammy then echoes Stokesie as Stokesie talks about the girls as if they were objects, but when Stokesie questions their disregard of policy and returns to work, Sammy continues to watch the girls, and seems to enjoy the way they flaunt their freedom to ignore the store's rules, separating himself from Stokesie. Sammy then disconnects himself from the store completely when McMahon looks at the girls just like Sammy did earlier with Stokesie. At this point Sammy is