What Is The Theme Of A & P By John Updike

First In the short story "A&P" there is this young cashier named Sammy who is working in the grocery store, while in this store two young females catches his attention and Sammy being a young man at his age tries to impress them. The first scene takes place when Sammy is in the grocery store ringing up customers and the same girls walk in, this time with more reveling clothing. The girls decides to shopping around, while shopping other customers in the store start to make comments and side notes about the girls. Sammy notice the remarks made by other customers but doesn’t say anything. The next day was slow at the store and Sammy is waiting for the girls to come in , a while goes by and the girls come in around there normal time but this time while in the store Sammy’s manger approaches the girls and talks to them.

Next once Sammy manger approaches the girls he tells them “We want you decently dressed next time you come in here ". (Updike 158) After being told that multiple times the girls felt embarrassed for what they had on. After Sammy witness his manger yelling at the girls he decided that he would be the hero and try to save the day. Sammy decided to tell the manger that he quits just to see if he would get the girls attention, but none on the girls notice Sammy for
This is the theme because at the end of the story Sammy thinks that once he tells his boss off that the girls would notice and start to like him. Also with this theme everyone can relate to it because everyone was once young and had moments where things felt like fancy. Once real life sets in everything that once was a fancy mostly turns into a disappointment. Last at the end of the story once Sammy notices what he has done for the girls, and didn’t get the response he wanted back he realizes that it was not worth losing his