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Dynamic Characters In A & P By John Updike

726 Words3 Pages

Courtney M. Minor
Dr. Adaku T. Ankumah
ENGL 102
20 June 2015
Sammy: The Dynamic Characters
Changes come with life, rather their momentarily or permanent. Some changes are for the great of good while others can be out of an ounce or more of spite. A dynamic character is someone who undergoes change doing the course of a story. The change usually happens as a result of the plot, causing the character to behave in a manner not foretold or foreseen. The change is internal and is not related to the outer appearance so to say. In the story A&P, written by John Updike, the dynamic character was a young boy by the name Sammy. Sammy is a nineteen-year-old man, working a boring, dead-end job as a grocery store cashier. He is one of the main characters and protagonists in the story and undergoes …show more content…

More immature than his 19 years of age. His descriptions of the girls were a bit naïve, though vibrant descriptions. Distracted from his job while he greatly admires Queenie's beauty and graceful behavior, the ultra-conservative customers at the A&P think quite differently, almost negatively: "when Queenie's white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they pushed" (Updike, 19). Lengel confronts the girls, upholding the policy; he asks the girls to at least cover their shoulders as a sign of decency. . He wanted to be the "hero" to the girls by "sticking up" for them; though, he was doing it for all of the wrong reasons. He wasn't doing it because he really wants to defend the girls; he was doing it because he wanted the credit and recognition. Sammy saw the window of opportunity and ceased it. Sammy proceeded to defend the girls and opts quit. Though Sammy's gesture failed, and the girls ignored and walked right out of his life. Lengel gave Sammy the opportunity to redeem himself, but he

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