John Updike writes “A&P” and shows how even trying to do something brave and heroic and standing up to leaders does not always lead to good. There are consequences for every action. He expresses this clearly in his short story “A&P”. Junot Diaz the author of “Fiesta 1980”, shows similar conflicts in his work such as A&P. Rebelling and undermining is not always the best thing to do. Neglecting words of an authority can lead to stressful situations. Both the writers illustrate this idea in their works. Sammy in “A & P” and Junor in “Fiesta 1980” both have authority figures that they are constantly having issues listening to. Both boys struggle internally to decide what they should do in their difficult situations. Sammy struggles with …show more content…
listening to his boss and tolerating his boss. His boss nags on some girls and Sammy feels the need to stand up for them, which leads to him quitting his job. Junor has problems with his father and listening to him. Junor is constantly neglecting what his father says and has trouble doing what he tells him. Sammy is a grocery stork clerk in the 1960s that works in the market A&P.
In the 1960’s the dress code was quite strict throughout society. Sammy appears to follow the dress code fairly well, seeing as he wears a white button down with a tie. Sammy is snarky and has a bit of an attitude, he comments on every one of his customers and he seems judgmental of them. Queenie a girl in her teens comes into the store with some her friends and they are wearing nothing but their bathing suits. As it was in the 60s this was scandal, luckily most of the customers in the store didn’t notice because as Sammy had called them “Sheep”, they seemed to be in their own little words. However, Sammy’s boss did take notice and he also took action, he told the girls that they would need to leave because their shoulders were not covered. Sammy wanted to be a hero so he stood against his boss with attitude and told him that he was quitting. Sammy wanted attention from the helpless girls so he decided standing up against the authority figure was best. He wanted Queenie to recognize him and wanted her attention but neither plan worked out. As soon as he dropped his apron and left the establishment to run after girls they were already gone, and he was left with no income and nothing to do. Sammy trying to be the hero failed for …show more content…
him. “Fiesta 1980”, is about a young man named Junor who has trouble with carsickness and his father.
In the short story, Junor’s father is a bitter man who seems to take most of his frustrations out on Junor. Junor’s father takes him to the house of a woman he is having an affair with. This scars Junor “The two of them went upstairs and I was too scared of what was happening to poke around. I just sat there, ashamed, expecting something big and fiery to crash down on our heads. I watched a whole hour of news before Papi came downstairs and said, Let’s go.” (Diaz) Junor only begins vomiting in the car after he has this experience. Junor loves his mother too much to tell her what his father is doing, because of that he keeps all his emotions inside. Him throwing up symbolizes that he is trying his best to hide the disgust he has of his father but he cant keep it down and he throws up when he is in the van with him. Junor, his father, mother and siblings all attend a fiesta and Junor’s father makes him starve in fear of him vomiting in the van again. Junor does not listen to his father and eats when his aunt sneaks him food. The story ends with Junor once again throwing up in the van. Junor calls his father the “Torturer” and that is because Junor feels that emotionally his father is torturing
him. In both of the short stories we see a lot of internal conflict in both of the characters. We understand that both young men are just trying to get a hang of the world and learning through their mistakes. They both neglect the advice and thoughts of the authorities and their leaders and it leads to both of their downfalls.
In his short story "A & P" John Updike utilizes a 19-year-old adolescent to show us how a boy gets one step closer to adulthood. Sammy, an A & P checkout clerk, talks to the reader with blunt first person observations setting the tone of the story from the outset. The setting of the story shows us Sammy's position in life and where he really wants to be. Through the characterization of Sammy, Updike employs a simple heroic gesture to teach us that actions have consequences and we are responsible for our own actions.
A characters courage is not measured by how an action will be accepted by others, but by how their actions stay true to themselves even in the face of a pressured surrounding. Colin McDougall’s The Firing Squad a story about a young soldiers attempt at redemption and George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant an essay about Orwell’s days in a British colony where he was called to handle the situation with an aggressive elephant are two pieces of literature that demonstrate the effects of courage. Courage takes many forms and in these two great pieces of literature it can be measured by looking at the characters and how they use courage and lack of courage as a driving factor in different ways throughout their story’s.
Sammy, the protagonist in John Updike’s “A&P,” is a dynamic character because he reveals himself as an immature, teenage boy at the beginning of the story and changes into a mature man at the end. The way Sammy describes his place of work, the customers in the store, and his ultimate choice in the end, prove his change from an immature boy to a chivalrous man. In the beginning, he is unhappy in his place of work, rude in his description of the customers and objectification of the three girls, all of which prove his immaturity. His heroic lifestyle change in the end shows how his change of heart and attitude transform him into mature young man.
During the progression of A&P, Sammy's words and action reflect his growth from an immature teenager to a person who takes a stand for what he believes is wrong.
The three girls entering the store in bathing suits and “walking against the usual traffic” coming down the aisle symbolize Sammy’s individualism. Because of the girl’s different appearance from the usual shoppers in A & P, Sammy couldn’t help but stare. This type of dress was not part of the “A & P policy” especially since “the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street”.
In John Updike's short story, "A & P," the main character, Sammy, is a cashier at a small grocery store. He is seen by many to be a sexist pig, describing in detail how he sees the three girls that walk in to the store. Sammy is in fact a sexist pig by what he says about them. With evidence and quotes from the story, Sammy can be determined to be a sexist pig. He describes the first girl he sees walking in the store as "a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it..." (421). Although the comment was kept to himself, in mind it is a sexist comment. Though the girl was in a bathing suit and there was no beach around, she probably wasn't trying to get the attention of young guys. She was just there to "pick up a jar of herring snacks" (423). Describing the girl's "can" (421), meaning her backside, gives Sammy some credit of being a sexist pig. Sammy slowly begins to see the other two girls follow the first. He notices not only what they're wearing, but what the little clothing that they have on covers up. "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" (421). With this quote, he is describing how the bathing suit was slipping off the girl, but in a more demeaning manner. "With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and top of her head except just her..." (421). Sammy describes that he just sees the girl, a one-nighter type. He doesn't see that she's a human, but just a plaything. One other quote/thought that Sammy has while these girls (whom remain nameless throughout the story), is when the one he calls Queeny takes her money from "the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top" (423). He begins to get excited as he uncreases the bill as "it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla [he] had ever known there were" (424). Sammy seems to be more of a sexist pig, as the reader proceeds through the story.
Wells, Walter. "John Updike's 'A & P'" Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 30, (1993) : Spring, pp. 127(7).
As the student begins his essay, he points out that Sammy is part of the lower class structure. He is an “eighteen-year-old boy who is working as a checkout clerk in an A&P in a small New England town five miles from the beach” (2191). While working an afternoon shift on Thursday, he notices “these girls in nothing but bathing suits” (2191) enter the store. It is in this scene that the student begins to identify the differences between the group of girls and Sammy.
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. As they go about their errands, Sammy observes the reactions, of the other customers, to this trio of young women. He uses the word "Sheep" to describe the store regulars, as they seem to follow one and other, in their actions and reactions. The girls, however, appear to be unique in all aspects of their beings: walking, down the isles, against the grain: going barefoot and in swim suits, amongst the properly attired clientele. They are different and this is what catches and holds Sammy's attention. He sees them in such detail, that he can even see the queen of the bunch. Sammy observes their movements and gestures, up until the time of their checkout. At which point, they are confronted by the store manager and chastised for their unacceptable appearance. He believes their attire to be indecent. Sammy, feeling that the managerial display was unnecessary and unduly embarrassing for the girls, decides to quit his position as checker. Thought he knows that his decision may be hasty, he knows that he has to follow through and he can never go back. He leaves, with a clean conscious, but the burden of not knowing what the future has in store.
Lengel, the manager of the store, spots the girls and gives them a hard time about their dress in the store. He tells them, “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” He says that they are not dressed appropriately to come into this grocery store. Lengel’s words cause Queenie to get embarrassed and start to blush. Sammy cannot believe this and gets frustrated at his boss. He doesn’t believe that it is right to prosecute these innocent girls for the way they are dressed. He also states at this point that the sheep are piling up over in Stokesie line trying to avoid all the commotion the scene has caused. I believe Sammy takes this as the last straw in a long string of aggravations.
Sammy is clearly intelligent, although still uneducated at nineteen, and capable of creating striking images, such as calling a girl’s hair “oaky” and describing the sunlight as “skating around” the parking lot. He is opinionated, sarcastic, disaffected teenager with a healthy interest in the opposite sex and a keen observational sense. Sammy thought of his community boring with nothing to do. He sees most adults as "sheep" or followers “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle”, all indistinguishable from one another, and symbolizes every costumer. Sammy shows no interest in his job what so ever, he demonstrates that when he says he made up a song with the cash register sounds “hello (bing) there, you (gung)hap-py pee-pul (splat)”(Updike) Since he doesn't enjoy his job he looks for something to do, he is the kind of teenager who notices everything around him. One day at the store three girls walk in with nothing but their bathing suits he didn't hesitate to start analyzing them. He drinks
Sammy comes in contact with a lot of people from different classes. He is in the young working class. The girls and Queenie appear to be rich, because they have been at the beach, not working. They come into A&P to purchase snacks that Sammy views as a higher class snack than would be served at his parents’ house. The Manager, Mr. Lengel is in a middle class above Sammy, but below the girls social class. The story is driven by the classes that are found throughout and greatly influence the reader’s depiction of what is taking place in the mind of Sammy, the
...u decently dressed when you come in here.” this man was entirely strict and conservative, as much was to be expected of a man around these part, he was most likely an avid church goer, Sunday school teacher, Boy Scout troop leader name your cliché. I started again “We are decent,” and before I could continue Lengel interrupted me, “Girls, I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy.” and then he walked toward the clerk with a disappointed look and asks “Sammy, have you rung up this purchase?” with an astonished expression caused by the event that just occurred before his eyes, Sammy simply replies “No” and rings me up with a great deal of haste, as to get my friends and I out of this self-righteous store before we disgrace it any further. He hands me the change then we hurry out of the store rushing to the car.
In the short story "A & P" written by John Updike, Sammy experiences an epiphany towards the end of the story where he looks back at the grocery store after he quit his job there. His boss was unsatisfied with the particular clothing a group of girls were wearing in his grocery store, causing his treatment of the girls to aggravate Sammy. Therefore, Sammy stepped in and confronted his boss about it and resulted in him quitting his job in order to gain attention from the girls. It was his hope that him quitting his job would cause the girls to alter their behavior and dress choices. However, Sammy is a part of the working class, being unemployed will have a negative financial impact on his life. Therefore, the romantic act he performed had zero
Confrontations can make one look like a coward or hero. The consequences of confrontations will always end up in maturity alike John Updike’s short story “A&P.” The story is told through the eyes of Sammy, a 19-year old store clerk in Massachusetts, who witnesses three ladies walk into the A&P store with bikinis on. The three girls are humiliated for their improper dress code. Because of this, Sammy tries to impress the girls by quitting his job only to be left empty. Not only did Sammy take this stand to impress the girls, he was affirming his adulthood by sticking up to his beliefs of equality. Sammy observes many characters throughout the story by their age, gender, and social class that centralizes the theme of maturity.