P & A

John Updike’s A&P illustrates how a few short moments in a person’s life can change the outcome forever. The actions, speeches, and comments of others in the story influence the main character Sammy to make a life changing decision. Sammy is a complex character with many personality traits that were brought out by the actions of others.

In the first part of the story an old lady at the cash register started giving Sammy problems when he rung up the box of crackers twice while drooling on three girls. Sammy suggests that “if she had been born at the right time they would have burn her in Salem” (344). By suggesting that the lady would have been burned made Sammy seem immature. Sammy was not patient with the lady which goes back to him being a teenager that didn’t care about his job. The only thing he was worried about was the girls that just walked in.

Being a teenage boy, the way Sammy was “checking out” the girl in bathing suits was only natural. The intense investigation of each girl is what defines Sammy’s personality. He describes each girl in detail showing that he is an imaginative person while also showing that he is not very worried about his work. As he traces every step the girls ma

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

The idea of working at the grocery store was not an attractive notion for Sammy being a teenage boy. By quitting Sammy shows his courage by taking his destiny into his own hands. The actions, speeches, and comments of the other characters in the story such as “Queen”, Stokesie, and the manager Lengel also contribute to Sammy’s journey from boyhood to becoming a man. He is stepping out of the store into a world where he can not know the future but he can know that he will not waste his life being ordinary. He is above all else being true to himself and this personality trait can only be described as bravery. One gets the notion that Sammy may be afraid that he will be trapped by his making the comment earlier in the story about Stokesie thinking he will be manager some day.

Glass 4

Works Cited

Updike, John. After ringing the girls up, Sammy said “I quit” (347). The manager

comes over to the check out line were Sammy in checking the girls out and, embarrass the girls by scolding them and saying “girls this is not the beach” (346). (344)

This personality trait of Sammy’s shows him to be a bit sexist, but not overtly so as to get on one’s nerves. Things each character contributes to the story help Sammy in some small and some large ways to make his decision to take his life into his own hands and be a man. The personality trait he is showing here is confusing because he feels sorry for the girls for McMahon “sizing up their joints” (346) while he has been doing the exact same thing ever since they walked in the store. Sammy’s personality traits aid him in his journey. The way he describes what he imagines her living room to be shows how he thinks she is in a higher class than him and his family, who when they have company, “have lemonade and if it’s a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses.

Approximate Word count = 956
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.