...In today’s society people are more sexist than ever. According to the first amendment men and woman are to be treated equality, but our society does not treat men and woman equal. Many situations about sexism leads to the death of men and woman, which is not the way to handle it. Sexism plays a significant role in how people live their life today. It seems unfair to me that a woman and a man with the same education and training are not rewarded the same. Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on gender. For example, in the short story “A&P” Updike explains a boy that quit his job because of a group of girls that walk in the store wearing bathing suits when his boss has rules and conventions for customers. Lengel tells Queenie and the girls "[w]e want you decently dressed when you come in here" (Updike, 233). Queenie replies with "[w]e are decent" (Updike, 233). The way Queenie thinks that decent is she at least has clothes on but the store rules require more clothes then just a bathing suit. Woman today have more attention to them then men do because of what they wear or just as little as how they look....
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...Perez 1 A&P The short story A&P by John Updike is about three teenage girls who walk into an A&P grocery store only wearing bathing suits. The story is narrated by a young man named Sammy. Sammy is working the checkout line when the three girls walk in. Sammy gives a description of each girl but shows much interest in the in the most attractive girl and he names her “Queenie” because she appears to be the leader of the three. A major themes that is shown in the short story is the objectifying of women. Sammy throughout the story objectifies these girls by comparing parts of their bodies to food. “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and sweet broad soft looking can” (348). He is clearly only looking at her butt and compares it to a can. He focuses only on her butt and seems to like from the rest of her. “... and the plump one in plaid, that i liked better from the back a really sweet can pipes up” (352). Sammy makes it obvious that he only cares and sees the girls butt. So he objectifies her by the looks of her butt. Sammy is also physically attracted to the most attractive girl. “... she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. The jar went heavy in my hands” (351). The fact that the jar went heavy in his hands is because he got concentrated on her breasts and was only thinking about them. Sammy is only thinking and staring at her breasts and he objectifies her by them. “I uncrease the bill, tenderly as you may imagine...
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...Xavian Arnold Dr. Patterson English 112 28 March 2012 A & P: An Analysis of the Character “Sammy” As people age, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experience. From the time a child turns eighteen and becomes an adult, they are required to deal with the realities of the real world and learn how to handle its responsibilities. In John Updike’s short story “A&P” the protagonist Sammy is a young man in 1961 New England who works in the town’s local grocery store. In a matter of a day, Updike goes from an immature boy with unrealistic ideas and fantasies, to a man who is about to realize how life altering the choices he makes can be. Sammy realizes that life isn’t always fair and that sometimes it involves the consequences that life can deal to anyone who has not had time to test a rash decision. Updike’s story illustrates that a part of growing up is a willingness to accept consequences of one’s choices, and that life's hardest lessons are sometimes learned a little too late. This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy, as seen through his evaluations of the costumers as the story develops. Though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger process of Sammy’s growth. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, you can see changes in Sammy. At first, he only notices the physical appearance of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only thoughts. As the story...
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...Growing Up: Much Harder Than We Expected As people age and grow up, maturity and wisdom is gained through every experience. From the time a child becomes an adult, they are required to deal with real life situations, and learn how to handle their responsibilities. In the short story “A&P” by John Updike, Sammy the narrator, is a young immature nineteen-year-old that makes a drastic change to his life. His immaturity and wishing to do and say whatever he wants leads into consequences he must face. The short story, A&P, takes place in a small New England town’s A&P grocery store. A&P is in the center off the town, five miles down the beach. Sammy is a grocery cashier, who finds himself fascinated by three girls in swim suits. Chunky or plain girl, is the first girl that catches Sammy’s attention. She has a tan with lines behind her back legs were the sun never hits. There was this tall girl too. Big tall “Goony-Goony” with a chin that was too long. The third one was the leader or “Queenie”, the name that Sammy used, was the most beautiful of all three. The way she walked with her prima-donna long legs catch Sammy’s attention. As the girls go around shopping through the store, Sammy observes the reactions of other customers as they see this girls outfit. The girls, however appear to be unique in all aspects. Walking down the aisle barefoot, standing up straight with their necks over stretched. They are different than the usual customers that Sammy sees every day, and this is...
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...they carry themselves. In such aspect Updike might represented his personal experience or someone else experience in “A & P,” when Sammy find himself thinking about Queenie’s life style. “All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. (193) Sammy in a way envisions her regular life at home in a way I might personally do if I wonder about an individual....
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...disgust. The American society has been taught that people must cover themselves to look appropriate, and that has been ingrained into the minds of many Americans. People have different opinions on the subject, but in reality, from the first few days that people have been on the earth, they were taught to cover themselves. In John Updike’s short story, “A & P,” three young girls innocently challenge that belief when they...
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...A&P literature analysis In A&P Updike brings us into the life of nineteen year old Sammy’s life as a clerk working at the A&P that does not like where he is at in his life. He describes his relationships with his coworkers and customers in a way that re assures us that he would rather be doing other things than working. In the fifth paragraph he talks about how the “sheep” which are the regular customers that come to the store mind their own business and barley get distracted by anything that he could set off some dynamite in the store and it would not even phase them as they go along with their errands. But when queenie and the girls walk by they are shocked by what they and have to do a double take to make Shure that they saw it right. In this part of the story he shows us that the people of the town mainly older people. This shows us that there might not be much to do in this small town as he would like to. It also shows us that the towns people are not accustomed to seeing people run around town in there bathing suits as it is unusual to see this in the middle of town....
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...In The A&P by John Updike, Sammy discovers the world of conformity that surrounds him and he, through the use of the world he imagines Queenie has—a world of classy parents, summer vacations, and the liberty to neglect the social norms of places like the A&P—makes him crave things outside of his limited life experiences showing that an immature decision can have maturing and long-lasting effect on the future. In the beginning of the story we find Sammy, an ignorant and disaffected teenager working at the A&P- a corporate structure in society, seeming to be pretty happy about his life. One of the things Sammy comes to understand throughout the story of “A&P", however, is how close he is to being initiated into the corporate structure represented...
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...A & P: An Exploration of Theme By Robert Smith English 175-01 Lucas Brown Tuesday/Thursday 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. 28 September 2016 The main theme of John Updike’s work “A & P” is a coming of age story with an emphasis on a changing world, in which old ways are giving way to a new generation’s way of thinking. There are many elements of this story which add to the theme, including: characters, protagonist’s points of view, setting, and symbolism. The characters play a key role in bring the coming of age theme in the story to life. To open the story we read, “In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (Updike, p. 16). Before the narrator even mentions anything about himself he mentions the “three girls,” this immediately draws...
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...A&P Story and Character Analysis “…My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (153). Unfortunately, many people can relate to this feeling after making a mistake or unintelligent decision. “A&P”, a short story, by John Updike tells of a brief yet problematic encounter in a local supermarket. The protagonist Sammy works as a cashier at the local A&P just north of Boston. After the incident when his boss embarrassed a group of young girls in the store, he impulsively decides he wants to quit as an act of heroism for the young embarrassed girls. Because he was distracted, he made an irrational decision that affected him and the people around him negatively. In “A&P”, Updike communicates the theme of thinking...
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...“A&P” Character Analysis The protagonist in “A&P” by John Updike is a static character because he reveals himself as a juvenile who remains envious of “his” girls, determined, and judgmental throughout the story. The way Sammy describes his opinion of the girls’ personalities, makes his decision at the end, and how he describes the characters reveals how his character did not change throughout the story. In “A&P” three girls wander into the grocery store while Sammy, the main character is working the cash register. Sammy instantly starts describing each of the girls and it can be assumed that the main girl in the group is his favorite. Sammy refers to her as “Queenie.” While Sammy seems quiet and shy around others, Queenie is the opposite. Sammy’s comment, “but you got the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and...
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...Short stories are meant to be short and get to the point fast. All this short stories do that just in different ways. “A&P” by Updikes, Sammy starts as a weak character but then at the end he comes out stronger and with courage to do what he had been wanting to do for a long time. “A Pose for Emily” by Faulkner, Miss. Emily loses her father and is left all alone, she gets company from the delivery boy. “Young Goodman Brown” by Faulkner, he has his mind set at the being that everyone has goodness in them and then at the end when he meets the devil, he learns everyone does not have goodness in them. “A Pair of Tickets” by Amy Tan, Jing-Mei learns she has two sisters and finally goes to China to meet her family. Everyone has weakness and strength,...
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...In the story of "A&P" by John Updike, the main character and narrator, Sammy, demonstrates that he is very observant and judgmental. Sammy could also be described as a critic. Throughout the story Sammy describes the different customers and makes comments about their appearance. Sammy also compares his lifestyle to the lifestyles of his coworkers and customers. Sammy describes the A&P to be located in the middle of town, nowhere near the beach, which confuses him about the girls who come in with their swimsuits on. Sammy also uses imagery to describe the A&P. The store is described by Sammy as a pinball machine, he says he never knows what tunnel the customers will come out of. Throughout the story, Sammy observes and narrates his descriptions of the A&P customers. He describes the housewives as "sheep" because he fails to see any difference between the housewives. The housewives also walk aimlessly down the aisles and just follow each other around in a flock. Sammy also made a statement about...
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...“A&P,” a short story by John Updike, consists of interlacing conflicts which lead to the single most important conflict in a teenager’s life: not knowing the unknown. These conflicts develop through the use of foreshadowing and flashbacks that lead to the character departure from the A&P. The author uses a first person view of a working teenager, who struggles to escape the social classes and the burdens of expectations from society and his peers as he in order to become more in charge of his life. We learn that Sammy’s personality is less traditional compare to his manager Lengel, when his peers are ridicule for showing skin, or indecent for the time. This one conflict tells him that the A&P is might not be the best for him because it is like a ball and chain. But just by being a teenager, he has not developed the reality that people cannot compare yourself to others, because it might...
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...Live and Learn First jobs are the first reality check to life. Each with responsibilities, rules and lessons to be learned and mistakes will be made under the watchful eye of an employer. In John Updike’s “A & P,” Sammy is the typical teenager bored with his job. He’s at a small town grocery store that does not get a lot of excitement. He mentally analyzes each customer as he goes through the motions of cashing out each customer. This day will change Sammy’s life and his lack of understanding of it. Sammy notices, “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (141). The girls move throughout the store creating quite the stir. Eventually the girls make their way to Sammy’s register. The manager, Lengel, approaches the girls, “‘Girl’s this isn’t the...
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