In the story A&P by John Updike, Sammy is a local grocery clerk in a small New England town. He is a young man thrown into conflict with his much older manager, Lengel over some young female customers. Sammy is especially intrigued with one girl in particular and struggles to distinguish between adolescent fantasies of romance and the reality of the responsibility his manager has placed on him as an employee. His fantasy world is crushed by the narrow-minded views expressed by Lengel who really represents the social opinions of society. Sammy feels that he must take what he considers to be heroic actions to protect the honor of his queen. This conflict forces Sammy to discovery that he is no longer willing to accept the conventional attitudes of society.
             Through Sammy first person narrative we discover his character and the protagonist he becomes. When Sammy is working he sees three girls in bathing suits walk into the store. Their beautiful appearance does shock Sammy but instead intrigues him. The first girl he notices is a little on the "chunky" side but has a "nice tan". He becomes so in awe of her appearance he accidentally rings up a box of Hi-Ho crackers second time. By his actions you can tell that Sammy places importance on looks. Most people would notice a girl wearing a bathing suit in a grocery store but the fact that he forgets what he was doing shows he is a bit immature. Instead of going back to work after that little mess up he quickly resolves to examining each girl. Next he notices the tall girl with black hair. But, he does not lose all common sense and his grasp on reality until he turns his attention to the one he finds most attractive. After checking out each girl from what he saw he distinguished her to be the queen.
             She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn't look around, not this queen, she just
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