Ismaeel Olukoga
Professor Baker
ENGL-1302-50261
Assignment 1
“A & P:” Short Story Analysis John Updike short story “A&P” portrays the mind of a young cashier, Sammy, working in an A&P store while admiring and analyzing customers, but especially the three girls walking around the store in bathing suits. Ultimately their defiance of standards of the community affects Sammy strongly. Updike uses action, dialogue and commentary to express the narrator’s personality and uses bathing suits and sheep to symbolize how different standards gets the attention of people. Updike uses action to portray Sammy quitting his job as a way of getting a reaction from …show more content…
Sammy alongside the workers and customers all had their attention taken by the three girls in two-piece bathing suits and it was due to many reason but just like Sammy they all had their opinions about this style of dressing to an A&P store. The reaction they get from the other customers makes up the bulk of the story. The three girls in different bathing suits walk around the store looking for herring snacks but don’t seem to know where it is and had many eyes on them due to their bizarre style. One could say the girls clearly want the attention because everybody knows a bathing suit is not the normal type of dressing usually worn to a store but especially to a beach, where similar dress code is a standard and others even stare at themselves half naked without feeling uncomfortable about it, because society has already made it a norm where by certain clothes are appropriate for certain outings. This can be outlined when Lengel, the store manager, let the girls know of that by repeating “but this isn’t the beach” (408). Sheep is also used to symbolize the way most of the people living in the city act, talk and dress the same way, but it is boring for Sammy who views Stokesie’s life and compares it to his and how much they were alike but Sammy was quick to prove that wrong by saying “Stokesie’s married with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as
Professor Baker
ENGL-1302-50261
Assignment 1
“A & P:” Short Story Analysis John Updike short story “A&P” portrays the mind of a young cashier, Sammy, working in an A&P store while admiring and analyzing customers, but especially the three girls walking around the store in bathing suits. Ultimately their defiance of standards of the community affects Sammy strongly. Updike uses action, dialogue and commentary to express the narrator’s personality and uses bathing suits and sheep to symbolize how different standards gets the attention of people. Updike uses action to portray Sammy quitting his job as a way of getting a reaction from …show more content…
Sammy alongside the workers and customers all had their attention taken by the three girls in two-piece bathing suits and it was due to many reason but just like Sammy they all had their opinions about this style of dressing to an A&P store. The reaction they get from the other customers makes up the bulk of the story. The three girls in different bathing suits walk around the store looking for herring snacks but don’t seem to know where it is and had many eyes on them due to their bizarre style. One could say the girls clearly want the attention because everybody knows a bathing suit is not the normal type of dressing usually worn to a store but especially to a beach, where similar dress code is a standard and others even stare at themselves half naked without feeling uncomfortable about it, because society has already made it a norm where by certain clothes are appropriate for certain outings. This can be outlined when Lengel, the store manager, let the girls know of that by repeating “but this isn’t the beach” (408). Sheep is also used to symbolize the way most of the people living in the city act, talk and dress the same way, but it is boring for Sammy who views Stokesie’s life and compares it to his and how much they were alike but Sammy was quick to prove that wrong by saying “Stokesie’s married with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as