A & P Updike Quit

“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, 18) The quote illustrates how impulsive Sammy was by sticking up for Queenie immediately after the manager embarrassed her by commenting on their attire. As the girls are walking out of the store Sammy wanted them to hear his heroic act before leaving in hopes to attract Queenie. Sammy believed that quitting his job for her had not acknowledged him as a hero as he risked his future.
In the story “A&P” there is a eighteen year old male named Sammy, the protagonist. He worked as a cashier at a supermarket when during one of his shifts these three peculiar girls walked in wearing bathing suits. He immediately noticed them and could not stop focusing on the each of them. There was one in particular that he tended to refer to the most and he called her Queenie. He continued to watch the girls and
He thought that the girls would hear him and stop to watch him stand up for them. Not knowing that they had already left, Sammy explained to Lengel that he embarrassed the girls. Although that is the reason Sammy told Lengel he was quitting, he really quit his job because he was hoping that Queenie would consider him her hero. Once Sammy finished putting his stuff away he left the store and looked around for the girls. As he walked out he noticed that no one was there. At that point Sammy knew that risking his job for a girl that had no idea who he was, was not a very bright idea. From that point he accepted that things were not going to be easy for him. Towards the beginning of the story, Sammy was not the kind of person that would act this way based on how the author portrayed him to be. As he became more fond of Queenie his attitude changed and turned him into a different person. This person lead him to bad ideas that costed Sammy his