Both John Updike's story "A&P" and Ernest Hemingway's "A Day's Wait" portray youthful pride and stubbornness, however I feel "A Day's Wait" was more effective because the character is innocent and portrays these qualities out of fear.
             Sammy, the main character in "A&P" finds himself acting without thinking. His main goal is to impress the three girls that came in the supermarket wearing nothing but bathing suits. When asked to leave by the store manager(Lengel)for lack of clothing, Sammy, trying to look "macho," quits his job to show he doesn't agree with Lengel and impress the girls. His efforts fail when the girls hurry out of the store not paying any attention to Sammy standing up for them. Sammy is now left without a job because of his stubbornness and "superman ego."
             Schatz, the main character in "A Day's Wait" is a boy who fears his days are numbered but does not show his fear due to youthful pride. When told he had a temperature of 102.00f he immediately prepared himself for death because the boys in France told him it was impossible to live with a temperature of 44.0C. Schatz failed to notice that the temperatures were in two different measurements and because of this was scared out of his mind but acted so brave. Unlike Sammy in "A&P" Schatz pride and stubbornness were out of fear and not out of ego or trying to impress someone.
             Another difference that I noticed in the two stories were the difference in the secondary characters. In "A&P" the secondary characters being Lengal, Stokesie, and the three girls, were not compassionate to Sammy and his actions. The girls shrugged him off and left without a thanks, Stokesie said nothing, and Lengal tried to tell Sammy to keep his job but would not give in about making the girls leave the supermarket. In Ernest Hemingway's story he portrays...