“Ex-Basketball Player‚” by John Updike is the poem that struck me this week. It is about a man who once had great potential but never followed through with it. Flick Webb is the focus of this poem; he was a basketball star in high school quite some time ago‚ but nowadays he merely pumps gas at a local station. The first stanza provides the readers with geographical information about the location of the gas station. “Pearl Avenue runs past the high school lot‚ bends with the trolley tracks‚
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Erica Garcia Professor Michael Sellars English 1302 June 11‚ 2012 A&P By: John Updike In John Updikes’ short story‚ A&P Sammy’s character as described by the narrator‚ comes off as immature. The way Sammy is very observant and judgmental towards the three girls reveals something much deeper. It seems as if Sammy is very unhappy at his dead end job‚ he feels stuck. The narrator makes it seem as if Sammy wants something more from life. He obviously doesn’t care about his job. He quits
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“A&P” tells the story of Sammy‚ a nineteen year-old cashier. It is a typical day at the grocery store when three young girls walk in wearing just their swimsuits. From the time period to the social environment‚ John Updike uses many elements to describe the setting. A major motif of this story is social conformity‚ which is displayed through the setting. The time period‚ location of the supermarket‚ and the social environment all affect the the reader’s understanding of social conformity in “A&P
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Midway through a paragraph‚ and midway through a train of thought‚ the narrator switches once again to the present tense. He says “Now her hands are empty‚ not a ring or a bracelet‚ bare as God made them‚ and I wonder where the money’s coming from” (Updike‚ A&P). He stays in the present for a few sentences‚ but then quickly transitions back to the past tense for one paragraph. Sammy goes back to the present tense once more by saying “Queenie blushes‚ though maybe it’s just a brush of sunburn
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Professor Dixon Comp II September 27‚ 2013 Compare and Contrast: A&P and Everyday Use A&P is a short story written by American writer John Updike. The story takes place during the summer in a small New England town where everything seems ordinary and gray. The story stars Sammy a nineteen-year-old boy working the checkout line of grocery store by the name of A&P. Sammy is working one day when in walks three teenage girls‚ wearing only their bathing suits
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enough to cause evacuations‚ but it kicked up the surf to the point where it wiped out most of the beach. The lifeguards were still keeping watch‚ ready to blow their whistles and call for back-up through their radios and long-distance flag language. If rip currents pulled someone out beyond the break‚ they were ready to come to the rescue. People made assumptions about the lifeguard with the homemade tattoos on his arms. With his shirt on‚ they figured his lazy demeanor and sun bleached hair
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over the summer I got a job as a lifeguard at the Stratford Richardson YMCA. getting this job has changed every aspect of my life from emotionally to physically and much more. these life changes have been both positive and negative effects that have taught very valuable lessons that I will use later in life and others that most likely will fade to the back of my mind. overall I will say that getting this job has been the best thing in my life. Being a lifeguard there are things that of course you
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John Updike’s “A&P” John Updike’s short story "A & P" shows you that there is a very thin line between being a hero and being stupid. I do admire the courage of the morally ambitious teenager who decides to standup and defend the young women’s honor in true fairy tale fashion. However‚ I can also see a sense of stupidity that occurs when you take a young adolescent teenager making off-the-hip decisions in order to impress the opposite sex. The decisions are hardly ever logic driven but for some
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Readers Response to John Updike’s A&P In the summer of 1961 we meet Sammy. Sammy is a 19-year-old clerk at the local A&P in a small town‚ and one day a few girls walk in‚ in their bikinis. Everyone in the store either stares at them lustfully or averts their eyes uncomfortably. When the manager gets back he scolds the girls and tells them that they cannot come back in there dressed that way again. So Sammy quits. I personally enjoy this story because of the dated wordplay and the character
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of my life. What started as a typical summer day’s work for me at Charlotte Country Club would soon turn into a nightmare that i’ll be forced to think about for eternity. It all started off When I was changing guard stands with two of my fellow lifeguards on duty. Nothing appeared to be out of order at first as I briefly scanned the pool while climbing the five steps to the top of the guard stand‚ upon reaching the top of the stand I saw a shadow that appeared to be on the bottom of the pool. I called
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