In this passage from “A&P” in which Sammy has just quit his job and takes in the consequences suggests that he regrets making his impulsive decision. The author shows this through the use of contrasting, word choice, and imagery. In the first part of the passage the author is trying to show the terrible way the situation Sammy was in ended up with. He was looking for “his girls” in the beginning of the passage showing that he wished that “his girls” would have stayed to watch the so called heroic move he made.One can also predict Sammy is a possessive person by his word choice of “his girls.” By Sammy defending the girls he was wishing that they would admire what he has done and that he would get some reward out of it. By Sammy saying, “of course” it shows that he believes he is a person with constant bad luck. The mood from the beginning of the story to the end has also changed. The beginning seemed more of a up beat mood to it as he described the half naked girls that walked into his work place and how cute he thought one of the girls were. Later however the story shifted into a more sad mood where Sammy quits his job and rethinks the decision he made afterwards. …show more content…
He must have been looking back inside the small mart because he actually was interested in what was going on in there. If he had not wanted to remember the experience of working in the mart he would have just walked away without turning back. Sammy also mentioned that he saw Lengel in “his place in the slot” showing that he still has a connection to his job and that that is the place he is suppose to be, even though he impulsively chose to get away from it. This also highlights that he wants the spot to stay his spot. Sammy also calls the customers sheep symbolizing that he thinks of them as mindless creatures who just follow everyone else but he still misses working with them either
After the murder of her boyfriend, a former hooker uses her street smarts to protect a young boy who may have witnessed the murder, as she flees from the FBI and the mob. BRIEF SYNOPSIS SAMANTHA aka Sammy (25) grew up in a foster home and on the streets. She’s a former hooker now living with her mobster boyfriend, JOHNNY. She wants to run her own escort business.
Sammy sees himself as a hero. He is an adventurous hero because his infatuation with Queenie takes him on an adventure down a tricky path that he is anxious to overcome. Sammy shows his heroic tendencies when he speaks his mind to his boss for humiliating the three girls who came in the store. “You didn’t have to embarrass them.” As quickly as he could, Sammy expresses his disappointment for how Lengel shames the three girls, in hopes that Queenie acknowledges his heroics.
When he sees the girls, he feels that there are people who are able to break out what is expected and can act different. By quitting his job, Sammy shows he is no “sheep” and have authority to act differently. The story takes place in a grocery store in a beach town. Without the setting, the girls would not have wandered the aisles and Sammy would not have a chance to quit his job. The theme of the story is appearance.
As made apparent by Sammy’s first thought outside, “I look around for my girls, but they’re gone of course” (pg. #7), Sammy initially quit his job in the moment to gain praise from the girls and hopefully to have them swooning over him, but all along he knew the chances of gaining praise from them was slim. Although Sammy was hoping the girls would be waiting for him after he quit his job to stand up for them, he wasn’t really surprised by their absence; He expected it. As Sammy stated “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter,” (pg.#7) without a job and without any form of reward for his somewhat heroic act, Sammy finally realized the challenges women in society face. Overall, A&P by John Updike is a short story raising awareness for women’s rights as well as proving that you shouldn’t judge someone based on their appearances.
Sammy is a nineteen-year-old cashier at a small store. Not used to seeing girls enter the store dressed that way, Sammy is shocked. Not being able to keep his eyes off the girls, Sammy notices details about their dressing. Sammy states, “She had on a kind of a dirty-pink bathing suit with a little nubble all over it and, what got me, the straps were down” (Updike, par. 3). We can see Sammy is sexually desiring these girls by the way he takes in every detail of the girls’ physical appearance.
A major theme in A&P is personal freedom. Throughout the story Updike uses metaphor for all elements in the story to implies the theme. At the beginning of the story, Sammy uses sarcastic tone to describe the customers as “sheep” and “houseslaves” which implies he is different from them in mindset. The way how Sammy talks about others shows his intellectual mind. He is not same as Stokesie who wants to be a manager one day.
This helps the reader visualize a sarcastic and frustrated cashier ringing up an impatient customer. Sammy refers to the customers as “sheep” in paragraph five because of their conformity and slow mosey throughout the store also making the three girls stick out more. In paragraph 2, Sammy refers to one of the girls as a “queen” using a direct metaphor as if she truly was a Queen. This reinforces Sammy’s observant mind and way he breaks down each girl. Whether his opinion was positive or negative, deducing women by their looks and staring at their chests, “this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light,”(3), does nothing but further supplement the idea that these three girls are being watched just because of their choice in attire.
He felt sympathetic towards her after getting embarrassed by Lengel, and he went after her, despite wanting her for her body. Although in the end, when Sammy fails his goal, he is changed by the events that happened to him, and he is hopeful for the
Social status is defined as a person's standing or importance in relation to other people within a society. Social status has affected the world for hundreds of years, from where you were allowed to go to the bathroom, to if you were allowed to vote. The way a person is viewed and treated is all caused by what is believed to be their rank in society and in the short story, “A&P”, John Updike uses irony, symbolism, and characterization to show this. Sometimes people dissatisfied with their opportunities get caught up with what others represent, causing rash decisions that lead to disappointment.
In the beginning of the story "A+P," by Updike, the character, Sammy, was an complex character. However, he believe it 's wrong for the girls to walk in the store inappropriately dressed. Later, he feels sorry because he felt like he and Lengel judged them. Lengel, the store manager, felt like it was disrespectful to him and the public shoppers for the girls to show cleavage. Sammy, feeling sorry, quits his job.
Sam goes on to explain how it felt as though weight had been lifted off of him, and that he saw the world through different eyes, now that he isn’t carrying that burden. This shows how much of an impact it can have to let those who hurt you be forgiven. I can relate to this lesson a lot in my life. I have someone who I was once very close with, who later decided to treat me badly and spread horrible lies about me. It took me a lot of strength to forgive them and to let go.
Quitting his job was a spontaneous decision he made to protect his ego. Lengel calls out “you don 't want to do this” but Sammy keeps walking (Updike 5). Sammy’s stubbornness to admit he’s wrong can be interpreted by the quotation: “It 's true, I don ' t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it 's fatal not to go through with it” (Updike 5).
3 The story of “A&P” by John Updike adopts the uses of figurative language to embellish the critical moments of transitions of people’s lives, particularly in the life of Sammy. Updike utilizes crafts of plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, and symbol to constitute the story, and to project the idea of "life passages. " Also, Sammy undergoes a series of events that enables him to transition as a person in his life. 3
These traits allow the story to flourish a change in Sammy that couldn’t be seen if the story wasn’t told by him. The audience sees his change from a boy attracted by a bunch of girls to a rebellious man challenging the system he doesn’t want to take part in. The interesting thing is that both of those desires are ultimately why he quits his job. This is seen when he says “... “I quit” to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero,” he wants the girls to like him because he’s still an immature boy looking for their affection (Updike 23). Though soon Sammy is challenged by his Lengel to think about his actions and he thinks “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it,” this shows that it’s also Sammy convictions that push him to quit.
This leads me to believe that believe that Sammy is not a victim. It was his own fault that he lost his job. Although Updike and Oates both choose to put the protagonist in danger, they contrasted on whether it was the protagonist 's own fault for being in danger. Both Updike and Oates use similar protagonist problems to build both stories around the struggle of adolescents. In “Where are you going, where have you been?”