Unlike his manager Lengel, he finds the girls a distraction from his everyday job where Lengel finds them arrogant for walking in to his grocery store with no shoes and only their bathing suites. Lengel tells the girls that “This isn’t the beach”. (Updike) At this point you think the way that Sammy is acting is immature because he is just thinking about how he likes the way the
Then after he quit he realized that he made a mistake after the girls didn’t acknowledge him defending them. In the beginning of the story, Sammy’s first reason for his immaturity and irresponsibility is his boredom in working in this grocery store. In the store, no excitable occurrences or active situations are going on; nothing is going out of the ordinary. The customers that comes through the store, Sammy calls them sheep because they are like followers, the customers do the same thing when they come to the store. When three girls come in with only bathing suits, he called them the same thing, “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle-the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)-were pretty hilarious,” (Updike 99).
Sammy and his decision Most men will try their hardest just to impress women. This is what A&P is all about. Sammy, who works as a cashier in a supermarket, gives us a perfect example what he done to impress a girl. His poor decision to quit his job was a bad decision and will definitely have a big effect on him in the future. In the very first sentence Sammy seemed shocked, "In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits" (Updike).
He thinks the customers are difficult, dumb, and common. However, these are simply the ordinary people who live in his town, the people who are just like his parents. But Sammy thinks he is different, he does not feel like these people. He feels superior to them and this attitude makes him believe that he does not belong in this little store in this little town. Sammy passes judgment on the customers for being dull and unaware: “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle…I bet you could set off dynamite in an A&P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists…” (457).
Sammy works at the A&P supermarket in small town and seems to be tired of the boring day by day of the job. Sammy got the job because of his parents, but he does not want his fate to be similar to his co worker Stokesie “….married with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already” (Updike, 221). Three girls walk into the store with bathing suits not the usual looking customers at this store. “….usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs….” (Updike, 221) indicating the normal customers are old women. The three girls do not represent conformity and Sammy would like to be like them.
Lengal approaches to Sammy’s register and tells the girls that the grocery store is not the beach and that they need to start wear appropriate attire next time if they want to shop in the store. As the conflict starts to rise, the Queenie and the girls walk out after they checkout their item and Sammy gets offended with what the manager told them. So as the rising action took place, Sammy took off his apron and bow tie and quit right on the spot. Sammy hit his climax point when he ran outside to see if he could catch up to the girls. And to his surprise, his action fell apart.
All of the trainees did not want to be in equities because it was the bottom of the food chain. It made the least amount of money and it was the least respected position at Solomon. When placed as a bond salesman, he entered into a new mortgage department which was ran by Robert Dall at first, until Lewis Ranieri took over. At first the business was slow, but when congress passed a tax break to save banks from going into bankruptcy, the thrifts (savings and loans) could then
In John Updike’s “A&P”, standing up for what he believed was right was all it took for Sammy to become an adult. As Sammy rang up the purchases of the everyday “sheep” (79) and “house-slaves” (79), he notices the “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (77) that had come in. Like most hormonal, teenage boys would, he watched the pretty girls as they walked throughout the store, especially “Queenie” (79), who appeared to be the leader of the girls. He began to feel bad for them though when he realized his male coworkers were also “sizing up their joints” (79). After all, “they couldn’t help it” (79).
Happiness In John Updike’s “A&P,” Sammy, a nineteen year old cashier at a local grocery store meets three bathing suit clad girls who end up affecting his entire life. The author has chosen to present this story through first person point of view. By allowing the story to be told in first person point of view the reader can truly get a reading of Sammy’s personality and background. Sammy quit his job because of his customers, his fellow workers, and boredom. One of the reasons that Sammy ends up quitting his job are the customers at the A&P.
“Gentlemen,” said the landlord, “it is plain you are strangers, and such guests we are not accustomed to see; pardon us therefore for laughing when you offered us the pebbles from our highroads in payment of your reckoning… but it is not necessary to have ay money at all to dine in this house…you have fared but very indifferently because this is a poor village…” (Voltaire 79). The landlord didn’t want them to pay because the government pays for everything. After all, the feast they ate was nothing; the landlord informed them that this is not a well feast but a poor feast. After eating they decided to just carry on with conversation. Cacambo humbly asked.