By the end of the story Sammy appears as a winner in my eyes. I feel, Sammy realized his future was not there at the A&P. Sammy has very dismissive thoughts towards his co-worker, his supervisor, and most of the customers in the store as if he is superior or more enlightened than them. Despite Sammy’s sense of superiority towards the people in the store he cannot help but feel, in the eyes of Queenie, he is just like everyone else in the store. Sammy felt compelled to set himself apart from “the sheep”.…
It is obvious that Sammy hates his job, he is constantly bored and ridiculed from his customers. In the beginning of the short story when Sammy is ringing up a customer he states, “I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell ...…
Finally when Sammy decides to quit his job, he was speaking rudely to his boss Lengel. It was only when Sammy left the job, he contradicted Lengel that he was a longtime friend of Sammy’s parent for years. Lengel attempted to talk him out of the decision to quit his job. Sammy doesn’t even think about how his action could effect in a negative…
Given what you learn about Sammy during the course of the story, what do you see as his primary motivation for quitting his job? What other factors motivate…
Sammy was rude and unkind to the customers at the beginning of the story, he seemed…
Sammy’s true intentions are revealed when he realizes the girls are not watching him when he is “defending their name”. The girls in the story are a complete opposite of the lifestyle at A&P with their breaking of the store policies as well as the way they carry themselves. Sammy wants to be apart of the Queenie because he wants her and what she…
In the story “A&P” by John Updike the Character Sammy seems to be heroic but in many perspectives many people can understand why he is a hero and why he’s not a hero in the story Sammy seems to be loving and caring he seems to understand the girls.while many seem to think that he only did what he did to when a girl over other all reality he seems that way because he just wants to impress these girls that comes into the store “A&P”everyday in two piece swimsuites.while others believe that he did it to take a stand to his boss Lengel. While the girls come in the store every day Sammy notice them but doesn't make any moves to let people know that he has a thing for one of the girls.…
The author, John Updike, uses characterization to expose Sammy’s true character. Sammy is baffled that the store manager, Lengel, would embarrass the girls in front of everyone. In their defense he stands up to Lengel and scolds him for rebuking the girl’s outfit choices. After the girls leave he then quits his job. When he quits the manager even warns him that “[he’ll] feel this for the rest of [his] life”, but Sammy follows through with his plan. Although he does…
In the beginning of the story, Sammy is construed as a very opinionated person, but his principals are not firm. He thinks one thing, but does another. He doesn't state his principles, but we can guess some of them by reading between the lines. When a woman chastises him for ringing an item up twice, he mentally insults her at the same time as apologizing out loud. “By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag – she gives me a little snort in passing, if she'd been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem...” (17). He dislikes the conformity that working at the A&P represents, but admits he has done nothing to separate himself from it. When comparing himself to his coworker he remarks, “Stokesie’s married, with two babies…but as far as I can tell that’s the only difference.” (18). He thinks that he will inevitably become just like Stokesie and in turn like the manager Lengel. The idea of living life this way is not enticing to him. He doesn’t know what he wants, but working at the A&P is not it.…
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…
The short story “A&P” was written by John Updike in the mid-1950’s about a young man trapped in a planned middle class lifestyle that he wanted out of. During this time in history most teenagers around Sammy’s age were responsible for earning a living to support their families. Sammy is a young man who works in a grocery store in the same small town of which he grew up in. One day, during one of his hot summer shifts three young women walked in the grocery store. Following their arrival, Sammy began to notice how they were dressed. He noticed they were in revealing clothing like they were going to enjoy themselves a day at the beach. Not being accustomed to seeing this type of dress from women in particular, it drew a great…
Quitting his job is his first step in achieving this goal. Although he knows that he is young, entering into the realism of adult responsibilities will widen his mind to explore and experience more. Quitting his job isn’t an optimal idea, Sammy’s motive runs much deeper than that. He is questioning for a sense of personal gain and satisfaction. By taking sides with the girls, he momentarily rises in class to meet their standards and the standards of the upper-class. Sammy is obviously near the bottom of the class ladder, a place where he is extremely unhappy. He wants the courage to set himself apart from everyone especially Lengel and be different.…
But this is where Sammy has an epiphany. He realizes how his beliefs and his actions don’t match and decides that not only would taking a stand for the girls be right, but also he might be able to join there group. Even though he might face public backlash for sticking out, he also might receive some like minded friends. Unfortunately, Queenie and the trio don’t seem to have cared about Sammy’s heroic actions. Although, Sammy decided to take action and stick it to conformity he inevitably gets screwed over by his decision ending the story with Sammy knowing his life will undoubtedly be harder, because of his decision to no longer conform.…
Sammy is a very complex character in Updike's "A+P". Many people, including myself, believe that Sammy is heroic character. He his heroic because he stood up for the girls, he stood up against Lengel, and he cared enough for those girls to lose his job for them. Even though Sammy did treat those people badly in the beginning of the story, he changed his ways for the better. Sammy is a heroic character, just because he judged people, that doesn't mean he is the worst man on the…
His mother still irons his clothes and he may have even gotten his position at the A & P due to his parent's ties with the manager, Lengel. The more I thought about the last eight paragraphs of the short story, the more my view of Sammy was shifted about and altered. Sammy has more substance than a low-life teen who objectifies every pretty girl he sees. He practically uses the three bikini clad girls as a scapegoat to jolt out of the sleep walk like trance he has been trapped in from working at the A & P. I had initially thought that Sammy only wanted “Queenie” to notice him and for his presence not to fall into oblivion.…