A & P By John Updike Summary

Plot and structure summary: In John Updike's short story A & P, a young nineteen year old by the name of Sammy describes what naively will become his last day on the job at the A & P grocery store. The story begins with a situation that will engulf Sammy's day and eventually lead to actions he could have never foreseen. In the late fifty's, early sixties the world was much more discretionary than it is today. For a woman, young, middle aged, or elder, to bare a generous portion of her epidermis was considered erroneous and ill-mannered while in a municipal location. This exact situation will set in motion Sammy's story. As Sammy insipidly lingered behind his checkout stand at the A & P grocery store, in saunters three pubescent lasses.
This character disturbs me. He is nineteen, clearly uneducated, containing an array of primal thoughts and actions combined with a frightening possibility of a liking for underage girls. Sammy will not make it very far in life with his current personality. He shows a complete lack of respect for his own life with practically every action. From describing his customer at the opening of the story as if "being born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem", to his juvenile conversations with Stokesie, another checkout operator who is clearly a certified copy of Sammy. Stokesie's ‘Oh Daddy" comment while the girls are passing easily shows just how perverted the two individuals are. Especially when completed with Sammy's feedback "Darling, Hold me tight." The statement "grow up" has never been needed more. Within the story the end brings about a disliking for Lengel, Sammy's boss. I believe this is uncalled for. Lengel clearly gave Sammy a chance for Sammy to rethink quitting. He was not forceful but he was stern, as a supervisor should be. Lengel shows a class that Sammy clearly does not have, noted proficiently in his comment "It was they who were embarrassing us." which followed Sammy's none thought out gripe about Lengel embarrassing the