A & P And Godfather Death Comparison Essay

“A&P” and “Godfather Death” are stories that fall under two different categories in reading. While “A&P” is a short story and “Godfather Death” is a folktale, it is clear that there are differences between the two stories. Despite their differences, there are some similarities shown through the protagonists of each story. Sammy, the protagonist of “A&P”, is an all-around character who is close to his family but makes poor decisions. The godson, the protagonist of “Godfather Death”, is also an all-around character and loves his job but takes advantage of his godfather, Death. Although Sammy and the godson are the protagonist in each story, they have differences regarding their work ethic and heroism, but they also share a few similar personalities.

Sammy does not care for his job as a cashier because of the way he treats the customers. In “A&P”, while he was supposed to be taking care of a customer instead of watching the three girls, the customer became mad and Sammy called her, “ … a witch about fifty…” (Updike 17) and said, “ … if she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem … ,” (Updike 17). He is either not paying attention to the customers or calling them names. The godson on the other hand was given an opportunity to become a doctor and he has been enjoying every second of it. He risked betraying his godfather to continue healing his patients. In “Godfather Death”, while the godfather ordered him to let the king die, the godson instead, “… gave the king some of the herb. The king recovered and grew healthy again,” (Grimm 13). The doctor could have listened to his godfather but he enjoyed healing people. Although part of the godson’s job was to obey his godfather, he still did his job while enjoying it at the same time, unlike