Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Character analysis sammy a&p
Character analysis sammy a&p
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Character analysis sammy a&p
1.In the first eleven (11)paragraphs, what do we learn about the A) location B) the participants and C)the conflict in the story? In the first eleven paragraphs we learn about the location,the store is located to the north of the Boston,in the middle of the town,and five miles away from the beach.The store is surrounded by two banks, a church, newspaper stores and three real-estates offices.Stokesie is a twenty two year old Sammy’s co-worker and the fact that he has a family is the only difference between them,according to Sammy.Stokesie he is a cashier,who hopes to be promoted to a manager but Sammy doesn’t have the same wish.Sammy doesn’t see himself in the job for a very long time unlike Stokesie.As soon as the girls walk into the store,one girl catches his eye.As he observes them he concludes …show more content…
We can see that Sammy is poor from the part where he talks about his idea to be with Queenie, enjoying everything she has.Shortly after he says that he is quitting the job,his manager tells him:"You'll feel this for the rest of your life." (69).We can see Lengel's opinion on his decision as he thinks that he needs the job and that his parents will be really disappointed with him,so this is definitely one negative side of his decision.Even though Sammy shows us that he has some plans for the future,I think that his decision was based more on the wish to get Queenie as his girlfriend as we can see from his reaction when the girls head for the exit:"The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel fast enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero."(69)Other possible reason is that Sammy doesnt want to do the same as his colleagues do in order to avoid ending up where they did.He doesn't like their current situation as they do not seem too happy, so he tries to have as few similarities with them as
1.Who is the narrator of the story? How is he or she connected to the story ( main character, observer, minor character)?
But life is not a fairytale. Standing there lonely, having no job is our Sammy. This is when Sam realizes his path, the true way to become mature. The moment when “Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient:” Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” (Updike) hold him back a little bit, we can feel the regret in his heart. But he cannot go back anymore, decision has been made. He gives up his last chance; from now on, he’s on his own. Sammy finally understands that it is responsible behavior but not playing “adult-like” game that will make him a true
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
...s that Sammy is taking a stand and that Lengel cannot change his mind about quitting. When Sammy left the store, the girls where long gone. "His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he's just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." This quote illustrates that Sammy knows that his parents will not like the fact that he quit, but he realizes that he has to take charge with his life, and make his own chooses without being afraid of what his parents would think. He is very happy that he had taken a stand, and he let no one change it.
In the final analysis, it would seem that the most obvious explanation for why Sammy quits his job--the one that he implies--is actually the least plausible. While Sammy would like to portray himself as the fearless defender of the delicate sensibilities of innocent girls, the reality is that Sammy's motives in quitting have far more to do with his own sensibilities than with those of the three girls.
At the beginning of the story, three girls walk in with only bathing suits. As the story unfolds, a diligent reading of the description reveals that Sammy, the A&P cashier, desires the attention from the girls. As “Queenie” and her followers scroll through the aisles, the fellow costumers and the employee’s eyes were glued to their presence. The narrator is a teenager who works the checkout line. He does not notice them when they walk in, but as soon as he spots them he is glued and notices every detail about each of the girls. The author allows Sammy to have a dramatic
As the student develops his essay, Sammy begins to compare the girls to other customers in the store. From “houseslaves in pin curlers” to “an old party in baggy gray pants” (2192 ), Sammy negatively characterizes customers in contrast to the leader of the girls, Queenie. To Sammy, the girl is someone that is not from their town. She is everything that every girl envies and wants to be. In contrast to Sammy, she will spend her summer vacationing while he spends it working. It is clear to Sammy that their worlds are different, however it is also obvious that he would like to explore hers.
This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of maturation. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he sees only the physicality of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only observations. As the story progresses, he notices the interactions between the girls, and he even determines the hierarchy of the small dynamic. He observes their actions and how they affect the other patrons of the business. Rather, how the other people view the girl's actions. His thought process is maturing and he starts to see things as an adult might see them.
Sammy worked a typical boring job and what seemed to be in a typical small town. The only person in the store he really related to was Stokesie, which is the foil to Sammy, because Stokesie is married, has kids and eventually wanted to be manger one day. Something Sammy did not want to stick around and see. The customers in the store were all pretty much the same, in which Sammy did not show much emotion towards except he referred to them as “the sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (Updike 261). It is easy to tell Sammy did not like his job, but it also seemed he had no other option, as if he was stuck in his small town and there was no way out. Then out of the blue he saw three girls wearing only their bathing suites walk in the store. Sammy noticed something different about them, like they were liberated from the conservative values of those times; they were part of a new generation. Especially Queenie, he referred to...
On the other hand Sammy feels that Lengel was wrong for his actions and tells him that he is quitting. In this he is trying to take up for the girls.
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.
In many ways they show that they are trying to protect the girls and do something for them. As seen in this quote by Sammy in “A&P”. “The girls, and who’d blame them, are I a hurry to get out, so I say “I Quit” to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. This quote showing how Sammy wants to be there for the girls, and be their savior. Until the end of each story they also both show or seem to be untouched by rejection until they actually know what it is like.
He even makes this comment about Stokesie: "I forgot to say he thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day, maybe in 1990" (Updike 1027). His disenchantment with the job of manager only suggests Sammy’s ideas of real life existing outside of his work at A&P. The most obvious display of Sammy’s maturity is his sympathy for the girls after they are harshly reprimanded by Lengel. His established sympathy is shown in "the contrast between the girls and the typical cash register watcher" (Greiner 389).
Sammy starts the story seeming as an ordinary grocery cashier in a small store, but it seems as if he has a little something to say about every person he sees or talks to, although he does not say anything out loud to the customers (or his boss for that matter). When three girls walk in the store wearing
Sammy has not been making the correct decisions. He has made impactful decision that he will regret. That decision wasn’t even for a valid point. He foolishly acted as a hero to individuals who didn’t need saving. He acted out in his own interests which lead him to look silly at the end. He isn’t reliably. He would abandon responsibility is given the opportunity. He acts as Iron man to those who just see him as the invisible