Girl Power

a rash or hasty decision, a decision that could possibly effect the rest of your life.

In the short story "A&P" John Updike shows how three bikini clad women walking

into an A&P store, leads Sammy, the main character in the story and, also the

Sammy is a nineteen year old who works at a local A&P store because his

parents are friends of the manager named Lengel,"He's been a friend of my parents

for years." (31) He also lives in a town north of Boston,"it's not as

if we're on the cape; we're north of Boston," (10) and, it seems as though nothing

really exciting happens there, especially on Thursday afternoons,"It being Thursday

afternoon,so there was nothing much to do."(12) All the events in this story are seen

and told through Sammy's eye's in first person narration.

Sammy's use of slang to describe the three girls in this story is often funny

and, also a bit chaulvanistic, the way he describes the first girl to catch his eye

is"she was a chunky kid,with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with

those two cresants of white just under it."

. . .

Sammy, not missing a move, watches the girls approach the meat counter. "(1)

With the customers purchase bagged up and out the door, Sammy has nothing

to do but girl watch. (3)

Sammy thinks this girl is the leader or "queen" of the other two girls,"and then the

third one, that wasn't quite so tall.

The thing that really gets Sammy about this girl is the straps on her bathing

suit: her straps were down,"what got me, the straps were down". Girls just didn't shop in two piece bathing

suits,"the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out

of the car into the street. (1) Sammy's description of the girls along

with descriptions of his co-workers, customers, store, and, manager, is very colorful

and paints a picture so vivid, you can't help but feel as though you were sitting there

in the A&P watching the whole scene unfold. "Queenie", puts down her

merchandise, a jar of herring snacks in pure sour cream and, then it seems Sammy's

impression of the girl changes from poor white trash, to upper class, just by what

she is buying,"All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Stokesie is obviously entranced by

the girls and even begins to fantasize about them a little,"Oh Daddy," Stokesie said

beside me. (11) This is the point where Sammy's

infatuation with the girls leads to his downfall and, according to Sammy is the sad

part of the story,"Now here comes the sad part of the story". (2)

At this point the power of these girls attire begins to take effect on the

customers,"You could see them, 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 they pushed on.

The story begins with three girls walking into the A&P store where Sammy

works and, right away Sammy's day seems to get a bit more exciting: the girls are

dressed in bathing suits,"In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits,"(1)

at the time they walk in he is ringing up a customer and, gets so rattled that he

forgets if he rang up the purchase or not,"I stood there with my hand on a box of

HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not.

This is where his co-worker McMahon worked. He watches their every move, noticing the finest of details,"the

girls had circled around the bread and were coming back, without a pushcart, back

my way along the counters, in the aisle between the check-outs and the special bins. (12) The girls are ready

to check out and, they end up at Sammy's register.

Common topics in this essay:
McMahon McMahon, Sammy Sammy's, John Updike, Mom Dad31, Darling Hold, Girl Power, Daddy Stokesie, a&p store, sammy girl, effect rest life, walking a&p store, power girls, sammy's description, effect rest, rest life, safe power, walking a&p, Tea Company, herring snacks, girls dressed,

Approximate Word count = 1367
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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