A & P John Updike Analysis

Sammy made the mistake of acting on desire while overlooking the consequences. Had the character's, point of view, setting, or symbolism in the story been altered the meaning of the story may have changed entirely and the themes we distinctly see in the story, could have been completely different. The characters, point of view, setting, and symbols in “A&P” assisted the development of the themes enclosed in the story. “A&P” depicted themes of women do not have the same rights as men and do not act on the power of desire. Other themes can also be found in this story but these two stood out to me

Jon Updike’s story, A&P is about Sammy, a typical nineteen-year-old boy who works as a checkout clerk in the grocery store. On an average day on the job, Sammy makes the unexpected decision to quit. What led to his decision to walk away from his job? The story tells of three girls who come into the grocery store dressed only in bathing suits. They make their entrance into the store where Sammy carefully observes their every move.

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

Point of View of John Updike’s “A&P” In the short story A&P written by John Updike is written in the 1st person naïve point of view. A&P is considered 1st person naïve because the narrator is too young to be trusted. He also is telling us the story as he feels to be the truth. The main character of this story is Sammy and the author Updike chooses 1st person to Naïve because he wants to show the readers what Sammy is thinking from his point of view aka his emotions and reactions to certain situations.

Protagonist vs. Antagonist in Updike’s “A & P” The protagonist vs. the antagonist in John Updike’s story “A & P” is highly debatable. However, there is much reason to believe that Sammy is the protagonist and Lengel, Sammy’s boss, is the antagonist. Sammy is portrayed as the sweet and naïve boy next door.

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.

In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, a nineteen year old grocery store clerk, Sammy, undergoes a right of passage that leads him into adulthood. This is also known as an initiation story. Sammy experiences a specific type of initiation into adulthood known as uncompleted. This type of initiation leads the main character across the threshold of maturity, which in some cases involves self discovery, while also leaving them entangled in uncertainty. Throughout the story, specific examples and symbols display Sammy's change from conformity to defiance to find what is morally right for himself.

The short story “A&P” written by John Updike was about a nineteen-year-old boy named Sammy that is a cashier, who ends up meeting three customers that happened to be attractive young girls dressed in swimsuits. They entered the grocery store that was located in a small Massachusetts town where he worked. He is portrayed to be cynical and at times romantic as well. The central theme of this short story is learned while aging and becoming which is accepting the consequences of our many actions as an adult. Sammy ended up quitting his job to stand up to his store manager for the girls that he found were mistreated.

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

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” Sammy is the narrator and cashier at the grocery story A&P. The author uses dynamic characters with immensely different personalities to portray conformity and rebellion in our society. Through out the story Sammy challenges conformity and social norms at his work place for personal reasons. Sammy is very bitter character and taken as a realist which fuels the story. Queenie, a rebel against conformity, sparks Sammy’s emotions after the way she is treated by his boss Langel when she walks into the grocery store with nothing but a bikini covering her skin.

In the story “A&P,” Updike communicates Sammy’s imprisonment though his location within the grocery store. In the first few sentences, Updike places “[Sammy] in the third check-out slot, with [his] back to the door, so [he doesn’t] see [the girls] until they’re over by the bread” (Updike 17). The physical isolation of the ‘check-out slot’ combined with Sammy’s inability to see outside demonstrates how he is incapable of seeing the outside world, let alone reaching its freedom. The act of Sammy noticing the girls further attests to his mental confinement; as instead of thinking of the store in terms of layout, he thinks in terms of ‘bread’ (17). His habit of thinking in terms of products signifies how the grocery store is where he spends the majority of his time, further alluding to Sammy’s physical confinement within the

“A&P” by John Updike is a short story expressing the issues of female objectification and degradation in society by following a young A&P employee’s views (Sammy) as they change through experiences second hand. Sammy goes from stereotyping objectifier to a form of a public defender, standing up for girls who can’t really do so for themselves. Sammy initially characterizes and describes all of the people in the store based on their looks and his initial opinion of them, rather than waiting to make judgements based on their personality, or not at all. He is very critical of looks, and is judgmental about why and how they look or act the way they do.

Caring - about people, about things, about life - is an act of maturity. Sammy, the narrator in the first story narrative “A&P,” demonstrates the development of his maturity through the actions he displays by standing up for the girls who were humiliated by a grocery store manager. Updike’s short story, demonstrates how youth display rebellion and immaturity due to their everyday struggles. While some people may seem to take a more mature approach in their development process, everyone matures in a different way. People want to be unique and accepted in their own way which explains Sammy’s actions.

In John Updike’s A&P, Sammy is portrayed as an arrogant character who desires women as exhibited through the school of psychoanalysis. He observes the behaviour of customers and draws from his experience as a cashier in order to characterize and scrutinize them. His attitude towards the customers leads him to believe that he possesses more power than the customers, assuming it challenges that of Lengel’s until he meets the girls. Sammy believes that he knows everything about the customers at A&P due to the behavioural observance of customers as a result of his experience as a cashier.

In John Updikes “A&P” story, I don’t feel that Sammy quits for just one reason—I also feel his actions where less of trying to impress the girls and more of his attempt to break the mold or cycle that he feels he has become apart of. When referencing the store, or the town and those who are part of the story Sammy references people as ‘sheep’ which is often used as a way to describe people who lack imagination, who follow/copy/mimic someone else. You hear that same tone as he describes the store and his town (cash-register-watchers, freeloaders, Big Tall Goony-Goony, etc) in somewhat of fantasy/imaginative manner as if the only way he can cope through the daily rituals of life, which has gotten to be mundane, is to narrate the events of his