Immatura In A & P

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Sometimes men will go to great lengths to try to impress women. In the story “A&P” Sammy, a 19 year old cashier who is the narrator of this story. The story of how he attempted to look good in front of the girl he happened to have a crush on. In the story the reader is able to understand Sammy’s emotions. Sammy is seen as a typical immature teenage male attempting to find himself in society by experiencing a slow shift towards maturity by taking a stand. Right from the start of the story, the reader is able to comprehend that Sammy is still somewhat immature by reading on how he observes every detail of what the girls going inside the store are wearing. In the first part of the story Sammy notices the girls, "…and a sweet broad looking can …show more content…

In the story he mentions them as being like “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (156). Comparing people as animals can be seen as childish and slightly disrespectful. Although Sammy behaves immaturely for half of the story, during the climax he begins to act more mature. Associating himself to Stokesie, which is the other cashier, a 22 year old adult with a wife and two kids, is the first hint of Sammy’s slow shift to adulthood. Sammy tells the reader about Stokesie, “Stokesie's married, with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can tell that's the only difference”(157).When Sammy describes Stokesie in the story shows how him and Stokesie are pretty equal and that the family can be seen as the main difference between …show more content…

After seeing how the girls were, in his eyes, embarrassed, Sammy has empathy towards the girls and his final decision is to stand up for what he thinks is right. Sammy did not really think consciously that he was slowly turning away from his teenage self to a more mature person. Taking a stand and following through his plan of impressing someone is something that takes courage. ““You'll feel this for the rest of your life,”” Lengel says, and I know that's true, too, but remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside” (159) Sammy knows that he will have to face the consequences later but at the same time knows that it had to be done. When Sammy finally steps out of A&P he finds his crush to be gone, not waiting for him and all that is left is just him and a couple outside arguing. Sammy experiences rejection from his crush maybe for the first time in his life. Sammy’s final words in the story are “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”. **Sammy was able to reflect that day how life can be harsh thus making him more mature**. The reader is able to understand based on Sammy’s incident that he will be a different person from that point

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