Sammy, a Follower or a Leader John Updike, an excellent author of a short story presents us in A & P, a part of teenager’s life, easy to relate with everyone’s life. The picture, in which John Updike introduce his character, Sammy, as a responsible and mature young man which is working at A & P at the age of nineteen, conflicts with his rebellious actions and a behavior of typical American adolescent who is trying to overcome the growing pain of adolescence in search of individuality in a society in which following standards is mandatory and where talking or showing sexuality is a taboo. Starting from the beginning, John Updike shows us Sammy’s simple life in a small town and a future that is not very promising , with a job in the only supermarket from region in a quiet day when is “nothing much to do except lean on the register and wait for the girls to show up again. The whole store was like a pinball machine” (Updike 19), that is not offering many opportunities instead of him going to college as many of his fellow friends did. John Updike's setting Sammy gives a dull and everyday same kind of thing illustration of the people in the checkout, which he refers to them as “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle -- the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything) -- were pretty hilarious” (Updike 19) and “scared pigs in a chute.” (Updike 21), for which unusual was not a part of life and deviating from a pattern to be different irritates. Their irritation is accentuated by the presence of the three bare feet girls wearing just swimsuits in a grocery store that is “is five miles from a beach, with a big summer colony out on the Point, but we're right in the middle of town.”(Updike 1... ... middle of paper ... ...ho at the end brings only disappointment. Following his actions he has to face the consequences in a doubtful future for him, has to confront his parents about his conflict with Lengel, and be responsible for his action. Sammy shows us through his action that it is important to act as individual, fight for what we believe in, and express hour feelings even though the result is not how we aspect. Only through fight, ambition and desire for a better us we can step the future’s ladder. We are the future generation and we have to change, build and live in a world comfortable for us, but in the same time have to be responsible and take failure as a push up for more work through goals. Work Cited Updike, John. "A & P." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. By X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. Boston: -Pearson, 2013. 17-21. Print
Sammy is a product of his generation. In the 1960s the social climate was changing. The new ideas of the youth were taking over the traditions of their parents. Music and the drug culture began to change the perspective as more people were listening to rock and roll music and experimenting with mind-altering drugs in an effort to free themselves from the strict societal demands of the 1950s. Sammy demonstrates this as he describes his work uniform - the bow tie and apron. This can also be observed when Sammy's manager, Le...
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.
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
During the progression of A&P, Sammy's words and action reflect his growth from an immature teenager to a person who takes a stand for what he believes is wrong.
Now that Sammy has chosen to become a juvenile delinquent, he realizes "how hard the world was going to be" for him in the future. He has left a life of safety and direction for one of the complete opposite, and he must be willing to accept the responsibilities of his actions, no matter the consequences.
John Updike depicts Sammy’s character as a typical young boy who thinks he is invisible to the idea that consequences apply to him. However, Sammy is granted the harsh actuality that he will no longer be given slaps on the wrist for radical decisions. His coworker Stokesie is twenty-two, married and has two children. Generally speaking, Sammy may still have childish actions but he understands that he does not want to work at the A&P the rest of his life. When he is stricken by the proposition to stand up for the girls as Lengel confronts them about their attire, his entire world
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.
John Updike’s “A&P” is a short story about a nineteen year old boy during the 1960’s that has a summer job at the local A&P grocery. The main character in the story, Sammy, realizes that life isn’t always fair and that sometimes a person makes decisions that he will regret. Sammy sees that life doesn’t always go as planned when three young girls in bathing suits walk in and his manager Lengel gives them a hard time, and he comes to term with that sometimes you make bad decisions.
Updike, John. “A&P”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 864 - 869.
Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of "A&P," writes from Sammy's point of view, making him not only the main character but also the first person narrator. The tone of the story is set by Sammy's attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammy's thoughts, for he tends to make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of "play."
Updike uses the experiences of teenagers to say how choices can affect our lives and the consequences that follow. When Sammy decides to quit his job, he is making the choice to be an individual and venture into the unknown. He does not want to be married with children at a young age like Stokesie, nor be as rigid as the manager, Mr.Lengel. The story ends with the sentence “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (Updike 102) which means Sammy is no longer a carefree teen, but a man who now has to accept that his rash choice to quit came with a result.
Lust makes people do crazy things. John Updike’s short story “A&P” provides a perfect example of how lust made a boy quit his job. In this short story, a boy, named Sammy, catches a glimpse of three under-dressed, attractive girls as they enter his workplace. The manager asks the three girls to leave. As a result, Sammy is outraged by the mistreatment of the girls and quits his job in protest. Sammy’s stand against the mistreatment of the girls makes him feel like a hero. Updike’s use of descriptive words and dramatic irony in “A&P” leads the reader to believe that Sammy’s heroic acts were not actions with rebellious intentions, but actions due to his lust for the three under-dressed girls.
...hose this story for the shear fact that I saw a lot of the same emotions and happenings in my life, but also a lot of unfortunate mistakes on the characters part which made me scratch my head and wonder. "How can you be so stupid and in denial of how one event leads to another, and to see how careless your actions are?" The story closes with Sammy coming to the realization of how his life will change, "My stomach fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me here-after." To one reading the story that was Sammy coming to terms with his rash actions awhile fully understanding the consequences.
The toughest stage is transitioning from a teenager to an adult. Teenagers are bound to make mistakes and that is a part of life. In the final analysis, Updike’s main character Sammy is a teenager who learns a great deal from his mistake. Sammy believes adults and society are the enemies of young people. He quits his job to impress three girls who used their sexuality for negative attention. Overall, he goes from being a closed-minded teenager to being aware what the real world is about. Transitioning is not always an easy process.