Heroic Motives John Updike’s “A & P” (1961) explores the life of a nineteen-year-old boy Sammy who works at a small-town supermarket. The story is told in a first-person narrative by Sammy, taking place approximately between the late 1950’s and 60’s. The focus of the story is on the attitude and observations that the young teen Sammy has during his work shift. Sammy is from a middle-class family who is bored with his job at the grocery store. After observing his customers and referring to them as dehumanizing characters, he experiences seeing a young woman he names Queenie and her friends, which come inside the grocery store dress inappropriately in only their bathing suits. Sammy admires the leader of the group Queenie in the interest of …show more content…
her grace, demeanor and attitude, but abruptly quit his job after his manager embarrasses her. Hence, Updike positions the reader to understand the impact of the girl Queenie that motivates Sammy to quit his job abruptly to protest injustice and other underlying motives. As an employer at the A & P supermarket, Sammy is disinterested with his job and uses sarcasm when referring to his customers by dehumanizing their characters.
Sammy is quickly inattentive to his duties and watches customers who come in his store. While working, Sammy gives his attention to girls that walk into the store, scatter brain he’s forgotten if he had ring up his customers’ items and decide to ring up her items twice. The customer is quickly irritable by his blooper. Recognizing his customer frustrations, he is unapologetic and refers to her as a “witch” while later stating “if she had been born…” around the Salem era “…they would have burned her…” (18). Sammy continues later on that day referring to the customers in the line as a herd of animals. Sammy states, “All this while, the customers had been showing up with their carts but, you know, sheep, seeing a scene, they had all bunched up on Stokesie…” (20). Further as Sammy leaves the store he then states, “Looking back in the big windows…, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through” (21). He also insults another customer that purchasing four cans of pineapple juice by referring him as a bum stating, “What do these bums do with all that pineapple juice? I’ve often ask myself” (20). Sammy’s attitude for his customer is somewhat
degrading. Further, Sammy has a fascination for a girl he names Queenie due to her grace, demeanor, and her sense of leadership towards her group of friends. Her confidence is strikingly amazing the way she pays no attention to the customers staring at her in her bikini. Sammy describes her leading the pack by talking them into coming into in the store with her “and now she was showing them” how to walk like her and demonstrates for them to“…walk slow[ly] and hold yourself together” (18). Her boldness for walking in the supermarket with a bikini makes an impressive attraction the way “She held her head so high…” (18). Queenie holding her head high resembles the way the Statue of Liberty stands tall and proud. Also, the way Queenie carried herself is nothing like he have seen while working in the supermarket. Sammy describes the women in his small town has varicose veins, and typically puts on a shirt and pants before entering the store. Moreover, Sammy is striking by Queenies the tone of her voice and her purchase of Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream and automatically assumes she’s from an upper-class family. He then begins to slip into the tone of her voice and imagines himself in her living room. He imagines her “father and the other men [is] standing around in ice-cream coats…” and “…the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate…” while holding a glass with a drink the “…color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them” (20). Sammy then contrasts what his middle-class family would be doing by describing his living room: “When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it’s a real racy affair Schlitz in a tall glass… [with] cartoons stenciled on”(20). Sammy gives much detail on the differences of their family drinks to compare and contrast their class. Furthermore, Sammy perceives Lengel enforcement of the policy as him being controlling and uptight. Sammy states, “Policy is what the kingpin want[s]. What others want is juvenile delinquency” (20). Sammy is angry by how Lengel treats Queenie for dressing inappropriately in a supermarket, which gives him the integrity to quit. He proceeds his heroic action before Queenie leaves the store in hopes they will stop and notice him standing up for them. Sammy has hopes that Queenie would recognize him and maybe introduce him to the upper-class life she lives. After the realization of Queenie leaving the store without even acknowledging that he has quit fighting for justice he then recognizes he has made the wrong decision. The motives of him quitting are now vanishing but has to proceed due to his pride. Sammy knows his mother will be upset with him for quitting “but it seems to [Sammy] once you begin…” an action”…it fatal not to go through with it” (21). Sammy is quick to react before thinking about the consequences of his actions. In closing, Sammy knows life after quitting the A&P supermarket will be a tough road for him. Lengel proceed reminds that his mother and father would be very disappointed in him since they rely on his income. Sammy states, “I know that’s true, too, but remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me scrunchy inside…” (21). After returning his uniform, he leaves out with dissatisfaction knowing his fight for injustice has gone unnoticed by Queenie. Looking back at the store with such regrets and states, “And my stomach kind of felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter. As a middle-class teenager in a small-town, Sammy knows the word of him quitting will get around town fast, and it is going to be hard for him to get a job.
The main character in John Updike's short story “A&P” is Sammy. The story's first-person context gives the reader a unique insight toward the main character's own feelings and choices, as well as the reasons for the choices. The reader is allowed to closely observe Sammy's observations and first impressions of the three girls who come to the grocery store on a summer afternoon in the early 1960s. In order to understand this short story, one must first recognize the social climate of the era, the age of the main character, and the temptation this individual faces.
In, “A&P,” Updike depicts an unusual day for Sammy working in the A&P store. Sammy’s days are usually mundane but his day is changed when a group of scantily dressed girls walk into the store and they leave an everlasting influence on his life. Updike’s demonstrates these events through colloquial language and symbolism, allowing the reader to connect with Sammy and see his growth as a character.
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.
He criticizes his family and their background when he says, “when my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it’s a real racy affair, Schlitz in tall glasses with ‘They’ll do it every time’ cartoons stenciled on.” Sammy desires to move from a blue collar to a white collar family to differentiate him from his family. He shows his growing maturity when he says, “the girls who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit’ to Lengal quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero.” He wants to be noticed by the girls for his selfless act of quitting his job for them. His plan does not work though, and the girls leave him to face Lengal alone. Lengal confronts Sammy and says, “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad.” Sammy ponders Lengal’s comment and thinks to himself, “It’s true, I don’t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it.” Sammy has begun to reach maturity and now wants to make his own decisions concerning his future and how he spends
Sammy tells us he is nineteen years old. He is a check-out clerk in the local A&P, where the boss, Lengel, is a friend of Sammy's parents. Sammy does not seem to like his job very much. He calls one of his customers a "witch" and says the other customers are "houseslaves" and "sheep." He himself comes from a middle-class family. When they have a party, he says, they serve "lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with 'They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stencilled on" (15). In addition, Sammy is sexist. He gives long, loving descriptions of the girls who cause all the trouble, and he thinks at first that girls may not even have minds, asking, "do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?" (13) However, he does change as the plot goes on.
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 customers]...mutter." Reinforcing his superiority above the people in the store, Sammy sees himself as a person that can seldom be "trip[ped]...up." Although he sees himself being superior to the store, the reality is that the store closely reflects Sammy's life. He seems to have a long-term commitment to the store since his apron has his name stitched on it, and he has been working at the store long enough to have memorized the entire contents of the "cat-and-dog-food-breakfast-cereal-macaroni-rice-raisins-seasonings-spreads-spaghetti-soft drinks-crackers-and-cookies." His day is also filled with the routine of working at the register, a routine that is so familiar that he has created a cash register song. Sammy also identifies with his co-worker Stokesie, "the responsible married man," and therefore wishes to someday be the manager of the store, like Lengel. Even the "checkerboard" floor represents a game of checkers, a simple one-directional game that closely models Sammy's life. Although Sammy is nineteen ...
Two Works Cited In John Updike’s "A & P," Sammy is accused of quitting his job for childlike, immature reasons. Nathan Hatcher states, "In reality, Sammy quit his job not on a matter of ideals, but rather as a means of showing off and trying to impress the girls, specially Queenie" (37), but Sammy’s motive runs much deeper than that. He was searching for a sense of personal gain and satisfaction. By taking sides with the girls, he momentarily rises in class to meet their standards and the standards of the upper-class.
Sammy also understood how the "regulars" of the A&P thought and reasoned. He correctly interpreted the customers’ reactions to the girls, saying, "A few houseslaves in pin curlers even looked round after pushing their cart...
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.
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.
John Updike's short story “A&P,” centers on a young immature and morally ambitious teenager who faces down the generation gap and, rather than bending to the dictates of the elders, rebels against them, securing his rather insecure place as a young, unproven man. Sammy, the main character, describes the entrance of a group of young attractive girls into the supermarket, “In walk these three girls in nothing but bathing suits…They didn’t even have shoes on”.(864) Sammy is mesmerized by their presence that he cannot do his job. The supermarket manager, Lengel, scolds the visitors by exclaiming “Girls, this isn’t the beach”.(867) Within the few moments after Sammy dramatically quits his job in protest of the quite impolite treatment by Lengel he says to himself “…and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”.(869) Because of his youth, and certainly because of the extremes of behavior that the young are prone to demonstrate, Sammy perceives that his life will forever be damaged by his actions. Though we certainly understand that this is not the case, that no one’s life is inexorably ‘ruined’ by the decision to do something momentous, it is certainly quite charming to transport ourselves into a time in our lives when such passions ruled us. This image awakens in us the expect...
Character can be defined as the combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. Authors usually embrace a distinct choice of personality on a character to make them stand out in a story. In "A & P" by John Updike, Sammy starts off as a young man discontent with his ordinary adult surroundings and moves to his need to change it. Throughout the story, Sammy describes and interprets the scenes around him, consequently revealing his own character, by which can be related through the use of Thomas Chou's Ennegram, to distinguish his personality type.
It is important to realize that Sammy’s 19-year old depiction of his surroundings might be skewed, but the story still maintains Updike’s basic use of this setting. Updike choses the dull setting of an A&P grocery store as a symbol, a microcosmic example of the societies tendency to conform. Also, the readers can easily relate to a grocery store. This A&P resides in a town where “the women generally put on shirt or shorts or something before they get out of their car into the street,” Sammy explains. Seeing a girl walking around wearing only a bikini in such a public place looks outrageous. “If you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store…” The town is a conventional one. Updike turns this familiar, mundane piece of American life, and makes it extraordinary.
Sammy does not appear to be content with his social standing by referencing “sheep-like customers who live five miles from the bea...
John Updike's A&P provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. A gender analysis could be drawn from the initial outline of the story and Sammy's chauvinism towards the female. Further reading opens up a formalist and biographical perspective to the critic. After several readings I began seeing the Marxist perspective on the surreal environment of A&P. The economic and social differences are evident through Sammy's storytelling techniques and even further open up a biographical look at Updike's own view's and opinions. According to an essay posted on the internet Updike was a womanizer in his own era and displayed boyish immaturity into his adulthood. A second analysis of this story roots more from a reader-response/formalist view. Although Sammy centered his dramatization around three young females, more specifically the Queen of the trio, it was a poignant detailed head to toe description of scene. I'll touch on that later.