A & P

A detailed Summary of A & P

Have you ever disliked a job? The main character in the story is a 19-year-old boy named Sammy working behind the register of the convenient store; which hates his job. The story A & P is written by John Updike. The story takes place in a small grocery store in the middle of a minute town, five miles from the beach. The town is so small that it can be seen in whole from the grocery store window. There are many problems that the main character undergoes. The three dilemmas that he faces throughout the story are the girls, his boss, and his own guilt. He faces many hardships throughout the short story, but in the end does what he believes to be correct.

"In walks these girls in nothing but bathing suits"(90). The girls disillusioned Sammy; he was awestruck by the way they were dressed. He had never seen anyone enter the convenient store dressed like that. The women that usually enter the store "generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the streets." (91). Sammy is a very sarcastic individual, and passes judgment on what he thinks of them throughout the story. The first girl that Sammy notices is a plump girl with a "soft looking can with those two crescents of white jus

Sammy's boss asked him if he had rung them up yet; he said no. Queenie pulled a dollar bill out from between her breasts, and Sammy was dumbfounded by it "I uncrease the bill, tenderly as you can imagine, it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known were there, and pass a half and a penny into her narrow pink palm and nestle the herring in a bag and twist it's neck and hand it over."(93). The girls were in a hurry to get out of the store because they weren't happy about Sammy's boss being a jerk about their clothing. As the girls were leaving Sammy commented to his boss "I quit" (93). Sammy's boss did not believe that he would quit for being mean to the three girls.

cuter than the first one, in his opinion. She was very tall and he thought to himself that she was "the kind of girl other girls think is very "striking" and "attractive" but never quite makes it, and they very well know, which is why they like her so much"(90). The last girl that he notices is a beautiful girl and he refers to her as "the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn't look around, not this queen; she just walked straight and slowly, on these prima-donna legs. She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn't walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step"(90).

Sammy's boss approaches the girls dressed in their inappropriate clothing and says "Girls this isn't the beach." Which makes Queenie feel uneasy; making her blush. Sammy realizes that she is higher class than he is. He slips into a type of dream where he is in her living room "Her father and the oth

Some common words found in the essay are:
John Updike, Mom Dad, , Lengel Sammy's, sammy's boss, girl sammy notices, sammy notices, girl sammy, main character, girls sammy, clothing girls, grocery store, throughout story, convenient store, mean girls,

Approximate Word count = 1195
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels