A to the P
“A&P”
The story “A&P” gives us a interesting, dynamic protagonist. We are given a short situation in which to determine his personality and his intentions. As the story progresses, we get a peek of Sammy’s personality, but his reasons are still a blur. Several other characters assist to contrast against Sammy. Though the story is short, we are left with a question to ask ourselves, why did Sammy do what he did? From the beginning of the story Updike uses Sammy’s youth and unromantic descriptive words to show his immaturity and boyish ways. We see this in the opening line of the story, "In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits". Much of the information that Sammy relays about the three girls is sexually descriptive in a nineteen-year-old boy’s way, "and a sweet broad looking can with those two crescents of white under it, where the sun never seems to hit". It is obvious that Sammy looks at the three girls who happen to walk into the A&P only as objects of thirst or possibly boyish desire. Thus, on the surface it is easy to take this story as that of a boy who would do something like quit his job to impress these girls. Due to his actions I see him as being young and self centered. We see Sammy being self-centered when he allows the girls to continue shopping even though they're not appropriately dressed for the store. It's self-centered because the only reason he's doing it is so he can scope them out in their swimsuits.
Another reason why Sammy is self-centered is becuase when we see him disappointed at the very end because the girls didn't even notice what he did on their behalf. If he were really being unselfish and principled, he'd do the right thing just because it was the right thing, regardless of whether it won him the attention of a pretty girl.
But, we see Sammy taking a stand when he quits his job in order to protest how the girls are treated being thrown out by the manager because they're not appropriately dressed for the
The story “A&P” gives us a interesting, dynamic protagonist. We are given a short situation in which to determine his personality and his intentions. As the story progresses, we get a peek of Sammy’s personality, but his reasons are still a blur. Several other characters assist to contrast against Sammy. Though the story is short, we are left with a question to ask ourselves, why did Sammy do what he did? From the beginning of the story Updike uses Sammy’s youth and unromantic descriptive words to show his immaturity and boyish ways. We see this in the opening line of the story, "In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits". Much of the information that Sammy relays about the three girls is sexually descriptive in a nineteen-year-old boy’s way, "and a sweet broad looking can with those two crescents of white under it, where the sun never seems to hit". It is obvious that Sammy looks at the three girls who happen to walk into the A&P only as objects of thirst or possibly boyish desire. Thus, on the surface it is easy to take this story as that of a boy who would do something like quit his job to impress these girls. Due to his actions I see him as being young and self centered. We see Sammy being self-centered when he allows the girls to continue shopping even though they're not appropriately dressed for the store. It's self-centered because the only reason he's doing it is so he can scope them out in their swimsuits.
Another reason why Sammy is self-centered is becuase when we see him disappointed at the very end because the girls didn't even notice what he did on their behalf. If he were really being unselfish and principled, he'd do the right thing just because it was the right thing, regardless of whether it won him the attention of a pretty girl.
But, we see Sammy taking a stand when he quits his job in order to protest how the girls are treated being thrown out by the manager because they're not appropriately dressed for the