Literary Elements In A & P

The plot in each of these short stories focuses on normal American, middle-class life. “A&P” is about a young man that does not want to conform to society and what others want him to do. Sammy deviates from the social norm by quitting his job at the A&P while attempting to defend the girls wearing bathing suits. M. Gilbert Porter wrote an essay in The English Journal called “John Updike’s ‘A&P’: The Establishment and an Emersonian Cashier”. In this essay, he states that “Updike reveals the sensitive character of a nineteen-year-old grocery store clerk named Sammy, who rejects the standards of the A&P and in doing so commits himself to a kind of individual freedom” (Porter 1155). Porter is describing Sammy as a martyr for quitting his job because he believes that the standards of the A&P are unjust. He also states that Sammy

John Updike's "A&P" is about a boy named Sammy, who lives a simple life while working in a supermarket he seems to despise. As he is following his daily routine, three girls in bathing suits enter the store. The girls affect everyone's monotonous lives, especially Sammy's. Because the girls disrupt the routines of the store, Sammy becomes aware of his life and decides to change himself.

A&P is the story of a nineteen-year-old boy, Sammy, who is fighting against the expectation to blindly accept the social norms of society and follow the dull, routine life set before him. Sammy currently works as a cashier at the local A&P supermarket and describes the customers shopping within A&P as sheep, houseslaves and pigs being loaded into a chute. He yearns to be something more than a chain climbing employee like his co-worker, Stokesie, or his boss, Lengel, who haggles over cabbages and hides in the manager’s office all day.

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.

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 setting of the short story, “A&P” by John Updike is a key factor in understanding why Sammy decides to quit his job as a cashier. Sammy know’s that this will only make his life harder, but he continues to reject the A&P in this story. In the story, there are also things that symbolize Sammy and the store. This story also has a dramatic end. In John Updike’s short story, “A&P,” he uses the setting, symbolism, and dramatic irony to support the theme that there are consequences to a person’s actions.

Sammy's strong feelings towards three girls in his store, whom he did not previously know, led him to make a choice that affected both him and his family. Sammy believed his boss, Lengel, was in the wrong to state the store policy of, "dressing decently" (378), to the three girls wearing bathing suits. Lengel also said how the store, "isn't the beach", so the girls should have their, "shoulders covered" (378). Sammy felt that Lengel was rude while talking to the girls and stated that Lengel,

Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of "A&P," writes from Sammy's point of view, making him not only the main character but also the first person narrator. The tone of the story is set by Sammy's attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammy's thoughts, for he tends to make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of "play."

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,

Throughout the story “A&P”, written by John Updike, the importance of choices and their consequences are demonstrated. When anybody makes a decision they should not only think about the good but also the bad. A lot of people make decisions right away thinking the decision is a great one but really it hurts them in the long run. The characters throughout the story, Sammy, the three girls, and the store manager Lengel, Updike uses them to consider the consequences of these characters choices.

The story “A&P” applies figurative language as one way to prove the overall plot of the story. For example the text states things like, “The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn't know which tunnel they’d come out of” or, “His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’d just had an injection of iron”. Updike uses this to express detail and be dramatic of the girls and himself and the situation that they are in. The setting of the story contributes to the overall plot because the story takes place in the 1960s at a convenience store. This would change completely if this had taken place in today's world. The girls bathing suits would be accepted and there would be no story. If this had taken place in an earlier time (saying that bathing suits were invented in the 1940s) the girls would be even less accepted that they were in the story. The mood of the story toward the ending is sadness and regret because there comes more of an understanding of what Sammy feels. In the last line it states, “...my stomach kind of fell as I

Love, disillusion, religion… every story has its own theme and its author leads the readers all the way to its understanding. The short story “A&P” is not an exception of this. Written by John Updike and published in the New Yorker in 1961, it tells the story of Sammy, a 19 years old cashier in an A&P grocery store who is amazed by the journey of three girls that enter the store dressed only in bikinis. The story is narrated by Sammy himself; therefore, the readers can almost palpate the narrator’s innermost thoughts. Since the girls were improperly dressed, Lengel, the manager of the store, rebuked them. Sammy decided to defend the girls and quit his job to catch their attention. But this immature act will have a long-term consequence for this boy. The theme of A&P is led by the significance of its setting, the use of symbolism, and the characteristics of its main character.

Sammy, the main protagonist and narrator in “A & P” written by John Updike, who was living at home with his parents; saw three girls walk into the A & P store. Sammy came to the conclusion that there is another world out there than the way he is living currently. We, as the readers, notice that Sammy is a long time employee and has been thinking about a way out for a long time. He is trying to find a way out from this trapped society he lives in.

A&P" is a short story written by John Updike that uses elements of literature such as point of view, symbolism, and allegory to address the topic of feminism “A&P” uses the literary element point of view to address feminism. The story is told from the perspective of Sammy. In the 7th paragraph of the story Updike states, “He's twenty-two, and I was nineteen this April.” This

“A&P” is a short story by 20th century writer John Updike. The story is narrated in the first person by the cashier at the “A&P” supermarket named Sammy. It begins by the description of three girls that enter the supermarket while nineteen year old Sammy and his colleague Stokesie are working their shift. The narrator describes in detail how these three girls look like and what they wear. He points out that all three of them are wearing bikinis which is unusual for their location.