A & P John Updike Analysis
A&P 19
John Updike’s (1932- 2009)
Central Character: Sammy is a checkout clerk at an A & P supermarket that is in his late teenage years , fantasizing about queenie and her 2 friends as they go in the store with their swimsuits.
Other Characters: Queenie with her 2 friends, Lengel which is the grocery supervisor, and Stokesie which is a check out guy at A & P.
Setting: at the A & P grocery store
Narrator: Sammy in a first person point of view
Summary: Sammy, the narrator, begins by describing the three girls who have walked into the A & P grocery store where he works in swimsuits as. He is so distracted by them that he cannot remember if he rang up a box of crackers or not. As he keeps mesmerizing over the girls. He gets in trouble and e quitting his job to prove to the girls that he quits his job in an effort to be a hero to the girls and as a way of rebelling against a strict society …show more content…
that they lived in at the time. Tone: Sammy is mesmerized over the girls in the grocery store, and becomes brave in the end and quits @ the grocery store.
Style : Sammy as a check clerk speaking the in the 1st person, his speech is formal , a factor that highlights his individuality and propensity . He usually describing a dollar bill like,” just come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known”, which makes him to be the age typical teenager in his late teenagers. Also he was talking to his friend by “I uncrease the bill, tenderly as you may image”. Everything he says is being said and done through his eyes.
Irony: The most ironic moment of this story is when Sammy resigns. He is making a statement on behalf of the girls, being the hero. They are gone and out of the store before he decided to resign and it’s finalized. So when he says he quits to Lengel quickly enough for him to hear, hoping that the girls will stop and watch him, as their unsuspected hero. The main irony is that by Sammy forcing to quit, it is showing his sign of being
mature.
Theme: All the main characters in the story must make a choice and endure the consequences of that choice.
Symbols: Sammy is symbolic by being smooth with the 3 girls, Queenie is symbolic of all that she is alluring about women and life, Stokesie is symbolic by being Sammy older coworker meaning married and tied down with children. Lengel the manager is symbolic of those that have gone to far that don’t care about any youthful ambition.
Evaluation: The beginning of the story very foreshadowing and didn’t get my attention till half way through the story. It gives the reader an insight on the grocery store in the late 1950s, giving them a point of view of what life was like back them. It also shows that a young boy was memorized by the young girls in that walked through the grocery store. Which made him mature in the end trying to stand up to his boss by quitting.
John Updike’s (1932- 2009)
Central Character: Sammy is a checkout clerk at an A & P supermarket that is in his late teenage years , fantasizing about queenie and her 2 friends as they go in the store with their swimsuits.
Other Characters: Queenie with her 2 friends, Lengel which is the grocery supervisor, and Stokesie which is a check out guy at A & P.
Setting: at the A & P grocery store
Narrator: Sammy in a first person point of view
Summary: Sammy, the narrator, begins by describing the three girls who have walked into the A & P grocery store where he works in swimsuits as. He is so distracted by them that he cannot remember if he rang up a box of crackers or not. As he keeps mesmerizing over the girls. He gets in trouble and e quitting his job to prove to the girls that he quits his job in an effort to be a hero to the girls and as a way of rebelling against a strict society …show more content…
that they lived in at the time. Tone: Sammy is mesmerized over the girls in the grocery store, and becomes brave in the end and quits @ the grocery store.
Style : Sammy as a check clerk speaking the in the 1st person, his speech is formal , a factor that highlights his individuality and propensity . He usually describing a dollar bill like,” just come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known”, which makes him to be the age typical teenager in his late teenagers. Also he was talking to his friend by “I uncrease the bill, tenderly as you may image”. Everything he says is being said and done through his eyes.
Irony: The most ironic moment of this story is when Sammy resigns. He is making a statement on behalf of the girls, being the hero. They are gone and out of the store before he decided to resign and it’s finalized. So when he says he quits to Lengel quickly enough for him to hear, hoping that the girls will stop and watch him, as their unsuspected hero. The main irony is that by Sammy forcing to quit, it is showing his sign of being
mature.
Theme: All the main characters in the story must make a choice and endure the consequences of that choice.
Symbols: Sammy is symbolic by being smooth with the 3 girls, Queenie is symbolic of all that she is alluring about women and life, Stokesie is symbolic by being Sammy older coworker meaning married and tied down with children. Lengel the manager is symbolic of those that have gone to far that don’t care about any youthful ambition.
Evaluation: The beginning of the story very foreshadowing and didn’t get my attention till half way through the story. It gives the reader an insight on the grocery store in the late 1950s, giving them a point of view of what life was like back them. It also shows that a young boy was memorized by the young girls in that walked through the grocery store. Which made him mature in the end trying to stand up to his boss by quitting.