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A & P By John Updike Essay

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In the short story “A&P” by John Updike the readers are introduced to Sammy, a young cashier at an A&P supermarket. The story is told from Sammy’s point of view and the readers see how Sammy’s heroism attempt failed. When three girls walk into the supermarket with nothing but their swimsuits the girls get scolded by the store manager, Lengel, and since Sammy was attracted to one of the girls, who he called Queenie, he thought that standing up to his manager for them by quitting his job would get her to notice him. Instead, by the time he got to go after the girls they were gone and it was like they didn’t even know he existed. The climax of the story is located towards the end when Sammy quit his job because Legnel shaming the girls for wearing the swimsuits is Sammy’s breaking point and the climax affects my attitude towards Sammy in negative way because he made such an idiotic decision over a girl who …show more content…

He didn’t even know her name and just called her Queenie. He was completely wrong if he thought that girls would notice him quitting for them because it was made clear since the beginning of the story that the girl had no interest in him. It was also clear in the end when Sammy saw that they were gone when he went after them. Unfortunately it wasn’t till the end that he realize that it was all a mistake that he felt like he couldn’t take because as Sammy stated “ it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.” In conclusion, the climax of this story is located in the end when Sammy leaves his job. Also the climax affected my attitude negatively because I completely disagree with Sammy’s decision. Finally, in my opinion “A&P” teaches us that some decision that are thought out of impulse should not be

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