Bonner 1 Eng 1302
30MAR12
John Updike “A&P” Take place in a grocery store in the middle of town “five miles from a beach”(3).Sammy the cashier at the store and the narrator who is the narrator of the story day completely went from usual to exciting. When three girls entered the store with swimsuits which Sammy is fascinated by? Updike gradually explained the setting and the climax that encourage Sammy for quitting his job. Sammy immediately distracted by examines the girls as soon as they walk into the door.”I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not”(1).The customer started lashing out noticing that he had rang the item more than once. The girls parade through the store with no shoes on. One particularly girl grasp his attention as the leader and he name her” Queenie” as the Queen of the group. All the girls seem to be unique but their differences is what hold the attention of Sammy. He observes everything about the girls from the time they walk into the store to the time they precede to check out. Even watching a hoping they would appear from spot, like being chase by a dog and wondering whether it was going to appear again. “The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they’d come out of” (3). It is a fact that this was the most excitements the store had in the time of Sammy working there. Sammy uses “sheep” to refer to the usual customers. Customers of the store normally walk with the traffic and never seem out of place. The way he describe the customers in the store and how their reaction to the girls they were surprise in seeing them in a swim suit. Sammy goes in detail by stating “You could see them, when Queenie’s white shoulder dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their eyes snapped back to their own baskets and on they push. 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 and muttering” Let me see, there was a third thing, began with A, asparagus, no, ah, yes, applesauce!” or whatever it is they do mutter” But there was no doubt, this jiggled them. A few house-slaves in a pin curlers even looked around after pushing their cart past to make sure what they had seen was correct”(2). The staff in the grocery store is pleased when seeing the girls for the first time and also acting the same as Sammy, Stokesie not far from Sammy working at another cash register utter “ I feel so faint”(2). McMahon an older man portrays in the story was “Patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints”. “Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn’t help it” (3). McMahon expression bothers him watching him looking at them like prey. Every man in the story was in the existence of sex and had a sexual attraction to these girls. Stokesie second of drooling ended fast with the reality of Bonner 2

being married man flashed before his eyes. Sammy fun was getting ready to come to an end. His manager Lengel enters from off loading a truck of cabbage, and stated “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” His approach is to let the young girls know they were not in appropriate attire for the establishment. One of the girls tried reasoning with the manager notifying him that they entered the store only to grab one item” All this while, the customers had been showing up with their carts but, you know, sheep, seeing a scene, they had all bunch up on Stokesie, who shook open a paper bag as gently as peeling a peach, not wanting to miss a word. I could feel in the silence everybody getting nervous, most of all Lengel, who asks me, ‘Sammy, have you ring up this purchase?” The managers allowed them to make the purchase even though they were not properly dress. Sammy mutters that quit wanting the girls to look at him as their hero of the day. But instead they kept moving going out the store not giving Sammy any attention. Sammy couldn’t back out of his last statement so he handed over his apron. Customer was unsure of his next actions and ambush in a different direction of Sammy. Lucky he didn’t have any extra items to grabs prolonging the finale Sammy left directly after the scene he made. Sammy quitting his job was like protesting against the rules of the facility and standing up for the girls. In his mind he did the right thing, stood up for the girls. He quickly realizes his action was going to force him into a much harder life. Especially living in a small town where the word of him quitting will travel extremely fast.

Bonner 3
Work Cited
A&P by John Updike