Expressing your feelings towards another can be done using a plethora of methods, there are also many outcomes that can come from sharing your feelings. In John Updike’s “A&P,” Sammy makes frequent glimpses at Queenie, verses in James Joyce's “Araby” the boy just thinks about Mangan’s sister all the time. Both stories have the same outcome of rejection, but the way they expressed their feelings towards the other was extraordinarily different. In the story “A&P,” Sammy comes across as very judgemental and observant. He notices when the ladies first want in, and one of the first things he chooses to point out is how they are dressed. He then goes on pointing out that one is overweight and another is the “head” of the group. The reader then begins to realize that Sammy's focus is completely on Queenie, the name he gave to the “leader” of the group. "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." (Updike 3) Sammy soon becomes relentless in finding this girl once she leaves the store, he even quit his job. He liked her so much that he dismissed his way of living. …show more content…
Unfortunately, for Sammy he never found Queenie and he was without a job. The boy in the story "Araby" is very tactical and shy.
He is on a strict schedule in the mornings to avoid confrontation with Mangan's sister, because he is extremely shy and has a huge fancy on her. He thinks about her nonstop and rehearses in his head how he will ask her to the Araby. "I could not call my wandering thoughts together." (Joyce 3) He soon faced the task of having to gain the courage to even begin a conversation with her, and it all went downhill from there. She explained to the boy she had a school trip the day he was hoping to go the Araby, he then went onto tell her he would be sure to bring her something back when he went. The boy was unfortunately out of someone to go with and the shop closed before he could get Mangan's sister anything from the
Araby. One major similarity includes the outcome both main characters faced. "I look around for my girls, but they're gone, of course." (Updike 3) Sammy soon realized that quitting his job to look for Queenie was not the best choice, because when he went to look for her she was gone. "She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent." (Joyce 2) The boy faced rejection when Mangan's sister explained she would not be home. This news was upsetting to the boy because of all of the courage he had to build up in order to ask her. Both boys handled their crush on the ladies very different from one another. "She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn't look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs." (Updike 1) You can tell Sammy is very interested in Queenie, he even thinks of frequent compliments to give her. He just stares and observers her every move. The boy is just fascinated with Mangan's sister, "At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby." (Joyce 2) The boy thinks about her all the time, but that was the only encounter between them. He often tried to avoid her because he was scared to speak with her. As in everyday life "crushes" on others occur, and everyone handles them in different ways. Not all outcomes are the same either, but in a lot of cases it doesn't always end up working. Though there are many similarities and differences between both of the stories the two with the largest impact similarly were the outcome of both, and differently was how the boys handled their fancy.
At the beginning of A&P, Sammy notices that three girls have walked into the store with only there bathing suits on. At first, poor Sammy cannot see the girls because he was at register 3 with his back toward the door. When they finally get into his sight, he immediately size the girls up. "The one that caught my eye first was the one in the placid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs." He also gives a description of the other two girls. He says one has "a chubby berry-faces, her lips all bunched together under her nose and the tall one, with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes and a chin that was too long--you know, the kind of girl other girls think is very "striking" and "attractive" but never quite makes it, as they very well know, which is why they like her so much." This comments illustrate his immaturity. Sammy refers to one of the girls as queen. He calls her queen because she seems to be the leader. ...
While it's true that Sammy finds the three scantily-clad girls who enter the supermarket attractive, as would any normal nineteen-year-old male, what is most notable about his descriptions of the girls, and particularly of the "leader" of the group, is that Sammy holds them in contempt. Once we get beyond the descriptions of their bodies, we see nothing but derogatory comments directed at them, including the derisive nicknames that Sammy assigns to them. Nowhere is this more evident than in Sammy's description of the leader, "Queenie." The nickname assigned to her by Sammy points out the stereotypical snap judgment that Sammy makes about her personality and social status initially, and to which Sammy rigidly adheres despite no real evidence of its accuracy. From the description of her "prima donna" legs, to his imagining of ...
Sammy begins the story by describing the three girls in bathing suits who have walked into the A & P grocery store. The girl who catches his attention is a chunky girl in a plaid green two-piece swimsuit. As Sammy continues to observe the girls, his interest seems to focus only on the girl who leads the other two into the store. Sammy refers to the girl he likes as "Queenie",someone showing poise and leadership, while the other girls seem to just tag along like a herd of sheep. Being distracted by the unusual event, he forgets what he's doing, as his customer, an elderly lady with heavy red make-up on her lips and cheeks, gets frustrated and starts to correct Sammy's inattentive service. The story elaborates on how Sammy is very observant, and we begin to understand his perspectives on events he appreciates versus those he doesn't. Sammy further describes the girls, saying to himself "You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?) you get the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and now she was showing them how to do it, walk slow and hold yourself straight."(16). Sammy believes that the other two girls are willing to tag along with "Queenie" because she talked them into going, pointing out they just like anything and everything that "Queenie" likes for the sake of being cool, and once the interest in somethin...
Sammy watches every step the girls take while criticizing and admiring them at the same time. His observations of the leader who he refers to as Queenie and her followers give him an insight of who they are personally. Sammy likes Queenie as she possesses confidence which sets her apart from the group. Sammy, still being a young boy likes that her bathing suit has “slipped on her a little bit” (Updike 158). Updike conveys the obvious that Sammy cannot look away from Queenie when “there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her”. Updike includes these small details and imagery to indulge the reader in the perception that Sammy at this point in his life is a clueless teenage
Sammy’s descriptions also indicated he had a lot of sexual interest in Queenie. He describes her as vividly as he can. He starts with saying, "With the s...
Along with Sammy, the other characters involved in this story are three girls shopping in the A & P in their bathing suits, whom Sammy names Plaid, Queenie and Big Tall Goony-Goony; Stokesie, Sammy's married co-worker; and Lengel, the A & P manager. The "A & P" is told from Sammy's point of view. Sammy presents himself as a nonchalant and flippant young man. He appears to be somewhat contemptuous of the older people shopping in the store. However, near the end of the story, we see that he does take responsibility for his conscience-driven behavior and decision, revealing his passage out of adolescence into adulthood through the courage of his convictions.
Sammy's feelings for Queenie changes when he hears her voice. Her voice is normal and he has built this romantic image of her in his mind. Hearing her voice and realizing she is a normal person, (that happens to be wealthy) slightly changes his feelings for her. It brings him back to reality a little. “Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over "pick up" and "snacks." All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room.” Sammy feels as if he has no chance to get noticed by her unless he does something out of the ordinary. So after she is done arguing with Lengel, Sammy decides to stand up for her and quit his job in hopes that she will notice him.
Sammy was obviously near the bottom of the class ladder, a place where he was extremely unhappy. His dead-end job at the grocery store, where lower class citizens are the prime patrons, was not a place he felt he belonged. He wanted to be a member of the family where the "father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them" (Updike 1028). Sammy realizes that Queenie comes from this sort of background, a very different one from his. When Queenie is being harassed by Lengel, Sammy sees that "she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy" (Updike 1028). Queenie’s family was in the class that he envied, that he admired, that he wanted to become a part of.
Sammy's thoughts, as told to the reader in his narration, betray a deep understanding of the people he comes in contact with. When the girls walked into the store, he began to describe not only their looks, but also their attitudes and personalities without ever speaking to them. The one who held his attention was also the one he named "Queenie". On page one he says, She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. Sammy understood that she was the one in charge, and by saying that the other two made their shoulders round he showed that he realized their passivity was by choice; they followed her by their own wills.
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...
In this essay I will discuss the short stories A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce which share several similarities as well as distinct differences between the themes and the main characters. I will compare or contrast two or more significant literary elements from each of the stories and discuss how those elements contribute to each story’s theme.
The Nacirema’s roots originate from North America. They are depicted as a group of individuals whose rituals revolve around the human body. The tribe values substances and the help of practitioners in their community to help their bodies recover.
Sammy is astounded by three young girls that walk into his store in their bathing suits. He follows their every move as they peruse over the cookies and other goods. The first thing this typical nineteen boy recognizes is the one girl’s “can”. But then he goes on to say that this girl is one that other girls seems to think has potential but never really makes it with the guys. One girl though especially catches his eye. He starts to call her “Queenie” because of the way she carries herself and that she seems to be the leader of the pack. Sammy does nothing but watch her every move as they parade about the store. He even daydreams about going into her house with her rich family at a cocktail party. He notices everything about her and thinks there was nothing cuter than the way she pulls the money out of her top. His immature infatuation with this girl is one of the reasons Sammy makes the hasty decision to quit in the end.
Stokesie and Lengal both symbolize lives he didn’t want to have if he stayed working at A&P. Lengal was the manager who was also a Sunday school teacher it was safe to say seeing three girls in bathing suits was not going to be okay. Lengal telling the females repeatedly that the store was not a beach. It is at this point Sammy thinks to himself why is he being so hard on queenie. That when Sammy says, “policy is what the kingpins want. What the other wants is juvenile delinquency”(Updike .22). Sammy says this because he feels like lengal only giving the girls problem about the bathing suit because it bothers him. It’s at this point Sammy decides he going to stick up for the girls. Sammy sticking up for these girls not only because he wants one to notice but because the girls represent the life he wants.Sammy while sticking up for the girls stops and thinks to himself what will he do after he quits. Sammy is afraid of what people would say about him and how it will be hard to move on and get any other jobs. In the end, Sammy does not regret his choice because he finally doing something he wants to do, getting some
The narrator alienated himself from friends and family which caused loneliness and despair, being one of the first themes of the story. He developed a crush on Mangan's sister, who is somewhat older than the boys, however he never had the confidence to confess his inner-most feelings to her. Mentally, he began to drift away from his childlike games, and started having fantasies about Mangan's sister in his own isolation. He desperately wanted to share his feelings, however, he didn't know how to explain his "confused adoration." (Joyce 390). Later in the story, she asked him if he was going to Araby, the bazaar held in Dublin, and he replied, "If I go I will bring you something.' (Joyce 390). She was consumed in his thoughts, and all he could think about was the upcoming bazaar, and his latest desire. The boy's aunt and uncle forgot about the bazaar and didn't understand his need to go, which deepened the isolation he felt (Borey).