A & P Turning Point

In "A&P," Sammy is initially drawn to three girls, Queenie, Plaid, and Big Tall Goony Goony, perusing the grocery store and while he is drawn to the leader of the group, Queenie, he soon begins to note how they are a contrast of what middle-class suburbanites consider to be acceptable. Sammy notes,

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 begins the story by describing the three girls in bathing suits who have walked into the A & P grocery store. The girl who catches his attention is a chunky girl in a plaid green two-piece swimsuit. As Sammy continues to observe the girls, his interest seems to focus only on the girl who leads the other two into the store. Sammy refers to the girl he likes as "Queenie",someone showing poise and leadership, while the other girls

In John Updike's J and P, Sammy a hard working young man takes an easy decision that not only makes him lose his job, but change his life forever. Sammy who’s works as a cashier at a local grocery store. Is put in a situation where “three girls in nothing but bathing suits,”(Updike), walk in the store and aren't following the dress code. Unfortunately everyone was staring at them with disrespect; everyone but Sammy, who believes what Queenie and her friends were making a statement that shouldn't be overlooked. He wanted to stand up for the girls, but Sammy began to look at both sides of what

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.

Sammy’s obsession with Queenie shows how Sammy doesn’t get much action. He is about a twenty year old guy who is obsessing over a 16 or 17-year-old girl. Sammy gives every single detail about Queenie; for example, he says, “She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn’t look around, not this Queen, she just walked on slowly, on these white prima-donna legs.” About 80% of the story is dedicated to the description of Queenie.

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.

John Updike presents significant items to represent certain points in the story like the girls bathing suits, the herring snacks, and the sheep. When the girls walk into the A&P, they caused a disruption mainly because of what they were wearing, bathing suits. During that time, women were expected to be fully clothed when entering a store or else they drew attention to their sexuality, which Sammy noticed quickly. As everyone reacted to their bathing suits it later represented a kind of freedom to Sammy. After Lengal body shames them saying, “Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy” (Updike 20), it crushed Sammy’s freedom feeling, so he reacted. Sammy also feels the contrast between the girls and the sheep as they try to purchase

Sammy at first is an innocent onlooker to this fiasco. Sammy devotes much more descriptive quality to the girls than to anyone or anything else surrounding him. In describing Queenie’s bathing suit he says, “the straps were down.

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

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 notion that he would quit his job in defense of this person that he so evidently despises is ludicrous. In fact, prior to the description of Lengel's encounter with the girls, Sammy as much as admits the validity of  the exact same objection that Lengel has to them, their appearance in swimsuits, when he offers us a description of the A & P's location: in the middle of town, miles from any beach, and where "the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street."

Status is the social or professional standing of a person, and it is often a unifying factor which John Updike uses to show comparisons of several different characters. Through Sammy’s point of view, several comparisons are shown between the employees of the A&P, even though their ages are different. Firstly, Lengel and Sammy assume the girls are ignorant and incompetent. Sammy’s demeaning view is viewed when he says, “Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn't help it.” In Sammy’s mind he saw the girls as helpless prey that had walked into a trap he needed to save them from. The manager saw the way they were dressed and proceeded to scold them the way a principal in a school scolds disruptive students. Another parallel between the two men is they both objectify the girls. Lengel is shown to look the girls up and down before he passes his judgement. Sammy’s defense of the girls, while it seems honorable, has ulterior motives. His hope is the girls hear him quit his job so that he can impress them; this action further objectifies the girls making them passive objects of passion. In the A&P there is another comparison between some of the repressed customers; the group of women he calls houseslaves and the trio of girls. Houseslaves are women whose only job was to cook, clean, and care for children. When the trio passed by these women there is a moment of shock from the girl’s appearance, but they look a second time possibly out of envy for the freedom they lack. The women in this story seem to all lack a voice and in the 1960s that was not uncommon; men in this time were still seen as the ultimate providers for the households. Queenie, like

The interaction between Lengel and Queenie intensifies as she formulates excuses toward Lengel regarding his reprimand “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks” (194). This very moment in the story, Sammy abruptly formulates a deeper perception of Queenie, “All of a sudden, I slid right down her voice into her living room” (193). His dream-state imagery of her life, and the sharp contrast to his own, helps him create a more constructed identity for Queenie. His dreamlike state of comparison with Queenie establishes for Sammy a logic in his rationale for yearning to truly form a deeper relationship with and be recognized by Queenie.

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).