A monster can be many things. A monster can be a person, a task, or, in the case of A&P, a dead end job. The story A&P follows the basic plot of “Overcoming the monster” and shows the more everyday aspect of this kind of plot. Dealing with one’s monster can be both physical as well as philosophical or internal. The plot of an “Overcoming the monster” story is characterized by 5 parts, anticipation, dream stage, frustration, nightmare, and thrilling escape. In the story the main character, named Sammy, is working as a cashier at an A&P. He seems a bit bored and easily distracted when three girls in bathing suits enter the store. This begins the “anticipation” part of the plot. He watches them for a little while and makes some observations about …show more content…
Sammy notices more details about them and realizes they’re going to come to his register. This begins the very short dream stage as it consists of Sammy starting to check them out and preparing for the outcome of his manager coming back inside. The frustration stage starts once the manager, Lengel, takes notice of the girls and walks over to them. This stage is even shorter than the dream stage because the nightmare, or battle, begins as soon as soon as he begins talking. The frustration stage is characterized as “meeting the monster” and is not always short. Stories with long introductions or involve a villain giving a monologue might have longer frustration stages than others. The nightmare stage soon follows with Lengel declaring “Girls, this isn’t the beach” (226). Sammy watches the situation unsure of what to do while the “battle” ensues. Although unconventional, the battle of words is very much present. The girls try to justify themselves as best they can but Lengel refuses to let up and tells Sammy to ring their item up. As the girls leave the “daring escape” stage begins with Sammy distracting Lengel to help them get past without another
Luckily, the narrator and Sammy both realize their deficiency after the situations with the other characters. In “A&P” the narrator’s turning point in his life is when he finds the bikers body in the lake next to him. In “Greasy Lake” the realization occurs after Sammy quits his job and tries to be the “hero” to those girls. In both stories, the protagonists’ have no idea what the real world is like, or how it works.
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
The plot of the story deals with three girls who come into the store dressed only in bathing suits. They make their entrance in the very first sentence, and they complicate Sammy's life. At first, Sammy, his older friend Stokesie, and McMahon the butcher all look at the girls lustfully. But of them all, only Sammy enjoys the entertainment the girls bring. The other shoppers crash their carts, look stunned, and are suddenly jarred out of their everyday routine. Sammy, who seems bored with his job, finds the change amusing. He even begins to feel sorry for the girls when everyone else stares at them lustfully. The plot's major conflict occurs late in the story when Lengel, the manager, comes in and scolds the girls. Sammy knows that they are on their way out of the store, but Lengel has to yell at them and make them feel bad.
In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, a young store clerk named Sammy observes three young girls walking into the store, and in great detail describes the appearance of each girl. He obsesses over these girl’s every move throughout the story. Eventually the girls go to cash out only to be halted by the manager who tells them they need to be “decently dressed” when shopping at his store. After Sammy rings the three girls up he tells the manager he quits in order to impress the girls. Unfortunately they don’t notice and when he leaves the store he realizes the girls are gone, and that he has made mistake. The author paints the protagonist as an individual who despises his job, and as a very cynical person who loathes the average customer at
When he is stricken by the proposition to stand up for the girls as Lengel confronts them about their attire, his entire world
The story unfolds when, “Lengel, the store’s manager” (2191) confronts the girls because they are dressed inappropriately. To Sammy, it is a moment of embarrassment and in defiance he quits his job. The student suggests that in quitting, “Sammy challenges social inequality and is a person who is trying to
The girls, and who'd blame them, are in 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. They keep right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not that as raw material she was so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow.
He leaves, with a clean consciousness, but the burden of not knowing what the future has in store. 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 wear, seem to be his only observations.
...p and you are not happy with where you are in life, and truly want a change. With Sammy he always wanted to quit but never had the guts to stand-up and go through with it, mostly cause he did not have that free thinking mentality like the girls. Even though when he finally did walk out of the store and the girls were not there, he had no idea what was next in life, but he did know that he was free to make his own decisions. Sammy no longer had to take Mr. Lengel’s nonsense, or stick around and watch Stocksie become manger. This was his time to stop being a push over and pave the path to his own future. His parents may have been upset, but this gave him an opportunity to stand up for his own actions and be confident in his choices he had made, regardless if they were for the right or for the wrong. Sammy was able to press forward and start a new chapter in his life.
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.
Sammy confronts Lengel and tells him that he didn’t have to embarrass them like that, but it does no good.
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.
The clients of Sammy’s workplace are described as having “Six children”(Updike 645) with “Veracious vein mapping their legs”(Updike 645) and ”haven 't seen the ocean in twenty years”(Updike 645). Through the details Sammy provides about the clients explains that Sammy is starved from the sight of a girl his age, and upon the first sight of a girl nearing his age, he is instantly attracted to her. The three girls in the store are Sammy’s rescue from the small tiresome town. The final point that proves Sammy’s heroic action are because of his lust for the girls is the theme of the whole short
Then, in an attempt to win the girls over, Sammy quits his job, and tells his boss that he did not need to embarrass the girls like he did. By the time he walked out, the girls leave and he has