A&P Short Story Essay - Grade: A PDF

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Andrea Bisono Professor Lutzyk ENC 1102 September 26, 2018 Sammy The Hero of A&P In “A&P” by John Updike, one of the main characters, Sammy, quits his job without hesitation or thinking about how it would affect him in the long run. When three girls walk into the A&P supermarket wearing only bathing suits and no shoes, they are put on the spot by the store manager Lengel. Sammy decides that this is the right time to stand up for the girls and confront Lengel about it, eventually quitting his job. John Updike uses the actions of a teenager to ultimately show the irony of an unnoticed, heroic gesture and to portray that what is significant to one may not be significant to another. Right off the bat, Sammy starts talking about how there’s 3 girls walking into the store who are wearing bathing suits, which is what first draws his attention to them. The first girl he describes is wearing a plaid green two-piece bathing suit, and describes her by saying “a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, …”, basically admiring the curves on her body. The second girl who has walked in is wearing a bright green bathing suit, who Sammy describes as tall and “with hair that hadn’t quite frizzed right”. The second girl of the group serves as a contrast to the most attractive girl, who Sammy names Queenie. Queenie rouses Sammy’s desire from the minute he sees her. Queenie is described as having “long white prima-donna legs”. Furthermore, Sammy, his coworker Stokesie, and the butcher McMahon are all attracted to these girls at some point. Right when Sammy noticed the girls walking in, he had gotten

distracted while ringing up a customer and had the customer giving him a scolding glare. He starts to notice many features on Queenie which he finds attractive. Stokesie is married with two children, but he uses sarcasm to show that he’s attracted to these girls. “Oh Daddy,” Stokesie says, “I feel so faint” and Sammy replies “Darling, hold me tight.”, implying that they can’t handle their beauty. The girls at one point ask McMahon for directions inside of A&P and once they walk away McMahon was “patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints”. With this being said, Sammy may want to be noticed by Queenie when she heads toward his register. Which brings me to the ending of the story, where Sammy’s heroic act goes unnoticed. Lastly, Sammy tries to catch the girls attention by quitting his job, but his action goes unnoticed. Lengel, the store manager who is also a Sunday school teacher, tells the girls “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” and in this moment Sammy felt that Lengel embarrassed them. So, he tells Lengel that he’s quitting with no hesitation to try and show the girls that he has their back and wants to stand up for them. Lengel says that Sammy will “feel this for the rest of your life”, which clearly means this is not a good decision for Sammy. Once Sammy goes out to the parking lot to look for the girls, they are gone. To conclude, Updike uses the actions of Sammy to show the irony of an unnoticed, heroic gesture and to portray that not all situations can be taken as a big deal. Even after Sammy quits to try to show the girls he feels for their embarrassment, he does not see it as the sad part of the story....