POINT OF VIEW IN AandP

A detailed Summary of POINT OF VIEW IN AandP


This story is written entirely from the perspective of nineteen year old Sammy, a grocery clerk. Updike has created an atmosphere of striking opposites warring with one another throughout the entire story. Sammy is bored and excited at the same time. He has worked in the A&P long enough to have memorized every item that is sold in the aisle directly in front of his cash register as well as what is generally for sale in all the areas of the store. He has worked so long at this store that he even compares food items to the bodies of the young girls in bathing suits.

Sammy didn't notice the three girls until they were near the bread and he begins comparing the thighs of the first girl he saw to crescents of white. The first contrast comes almost immediately as he is brought back to the task at hand which is waiting on a fifty-year-old woman, with whom he is irritated for causing him to stop looking at the girls. He blames her for his own mistake of ringi


The girls chose to use Sammy's checkout line and he felt lucky to have been chosen. This seems to be the only reason that Sammy quit his job. He felt attached to the girls, and when the store manager chastised them for being half naked in his store, Sammy felt obligated to stand up for them the only way he knew how, he quit his job. He describes his exit from the store as a saunter, into the electric eye.

The second opposite occurs after Sammy has admired every visible square inch of the girls bodies, however, he feels sad for the girls when old Mr. McMahon form the meat department began blowing them kisses while staring after them as they left his area. In Sammy's mind it is okay for him to look to his hearts content, but it is out of line for an old man to look.

Updike goes into great detail to contrast the young girls with the fifty-year-old woman. He describes the older woman as having rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows. The young girls are all given nubile

Some common words found in the essay are:
, fifty-year-old woman, crossed line, lawn chairs, quit job, cash register, crescents white, bathing suits, prima-donna legs,

Approximate Word count = 662
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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  • AandP 2 ... grocery store is left more to the imagination, Updike uses the vivid images of the other characters to illustrate the setting through Sammyamp39s point of view. ... 935 words


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