The Importance Of Perception In John Updike's A & P

A&P by John Updike is told as an old memory from 19-year old Sammy’s perspective as he works his cashier job at an A&P grocery store. He recalls a day when he was working his job and three girls walked in wearing only bathing suits. From the very moment the girls walked in, his job slips his mind and they are the only thing holding Sammy’s attention, costing him his job and future. Upon the girl’s entry, he describes their physical appearances in extensive detail. The “chunky one with a good tan”, the “tall one with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right”, and the “queen” with the “long white prima donna legs” and bathing suit straps “looped loose around the cool tops of her arms”. From the amount of detail he used to describe the girls, I deducted that this was a distracting sight to him, along with the rest of the store’s customers who stared at them in disbelief. As he watched the girls, he accidentally rings up a customer’s box of HiHo crackers twice in a row, causing the customer to become incredibly agitated that he is not giving her his full attention. Sammy hardly pays any mind to the woman’s agitation and watches the girls idle into the meat isle. It was made perfectly clear at this point that his primary concern is no longer his job, but the girls in the store.
After a small tense conversation between the “queen” and the manager, Sammy notices the girls are in a rush to leave and wanted to be their “unsuspecting hero”, so he quit his job on the spot. Lengel encourages him not to quit, as it would be disappointing to his mother and father. Shrugging him off, Sammy drops his apron and bow tie and leaves the store to meet up with his girls, only to find that they are long