A & P By John Updike Analysis

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A & P by John Updike is a short story that takes place in a small town in Boston. It tells a story of the observations of a young nineteen-year-old man named Sammy. The short story describes the accounts and observations of Sammy as he preforms his uninteresting job as a checkout clerk at his town’s local A & P. Rather than his job at hand, he seems more interested in judging the people who shop there. Updike’s Sammy shows himself as an observant and critical young man but grows as a person through his first person narration. Telling this story through a first person perspective allows Sammy the ability to gather observations of the people and things around him. Perhaps through his mindless job of ringing up items, Sammy finds that making quick …show more content…

18-19). Sammy gathers an unfair judgment rudely and without much thought, something he probably wouldn’t say out loud or to her face. He uses the same technique while watching the three girls. The first of the three girls that catches his eyes he describes as, “the one in the plaid green two piece. She is a chunky kid… with a sweet broad soft looking can”. Then describing who he calls “the Queen” with “a kind of prim face” (pg. 19). Sammy also sees a man “in baggy gray pants who stumbles up with four giant cans of pineapple juice” and wonders to himself, “what do these bums do with all that pineapple juice?” (pg. 21). Sammy makes unsympathetic assumptions to someone who is down on their luck. These thoughtless observations expose Sammy as a person who judges others based on their appearances. Sammy’s own character faults lie with his tendency to label people that shop in the A & P and the sad part is they don’t even know he’s judging them

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