A&P

A detailed Summary of A&P


In the short story "A&P" by John Updike, the character Sammy works in the A & P. He does not care about the work that he does and is very unambitous; he cares more about observing his customers than doing his job. He even makes up names to call certain customers such as, "sheep...house slaves...cash-register-watchers".

Sammy creates names that he associates certain customers with. For instance, he calls some of them "cash-register-watchers". The cash-register-watchers are the old women who have "been watching cash registers for fifty years and probably never seen a mistake before.". When the old woman caught him ringing the HiHo crackers up twice he had not been paying attention. Three girls had just walked in all wearing nothing except their bathing suits. This shows how Sammy is not very interested in doing his job well. He is


The main focus in this story for Sammy however, was the girls. He watched them prance around the store with nothing but bathing suits on. He did not know any of them so he gave one of them a name and referred to the others by their appearances. "There was this chunky one, with the two piece....". He also referred to one of the girls as Queenie. "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 on slowly, on these long white prima-donna legs.". In this line Sammy explains why he thinks that she is the queen. He notices everything about her.

After the girls get to the register to purchase the snacks, Sammy's boss comes out and says, "Girls, this isn't the beach." Lengel, Sammy's boss, and the girls argue about coming to the A&P in bathi

Some common words found in the essay are:
John Updike, Lengel Sammy's, bathing suits, , story sammy, attention girls, doing job, sammy's boss,

Approximate Word count = 579
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

join now Save Paper

Related Essays

  • AampampP RR 1 John Updikes ampquotAampampPampquot In the story AampampP by John Updike, Sammy is a local grocery clerk in a small New England town. He is a young ... 1017 words
  • AampampP ampquotAampampPampquot by John Updike, tells of an important event in the life of Sammy, a nineteenyearold grocery store checker. One summer day ... 445 words
  • AampampP Reality Can Hurt ampquotAampampP,ampquot by John Updike, is a story that provides a young man by the name of Sammy an important lesson in life. In ... 805 words
  • AampampP AampampP by John Updike I think that in AampampP the author describes how life was decades ago and how it seems to me how life should be today, with out the arguments ... 316 words
  • AampampP Just Like AampampP AampampP was a very descriptive piece of writing, which is about a boy working at a local grocery store. ... The guy from AampampP was very intelligent. ... 283 words

Professional Essays

  • Updike AampampP ... Updike 392. In other words, the norms and values that may apply on the beach DO NOT apply in Mr. Lengels AampampP supermarket. They do ... 840 words
  • Analysis of AampampP and Shiloh In his article ampquotUpdikeamp39s AampampP,ampquot Corey Evan Thompson argues that the narrator and main character Sammy is not a hero for standing up for the young girls but a ... 702 words
  • AampampP Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company AampampP is focused on divesting itself of stores which are not performing or which would require extensive renovation and building up the quality of its existing ... 566 words
  • The Individual ampamp Society in 3 Stories ... to his or her society is explored in three storiesampquotThe Red Convertibleampquot by Louise Erdrich, ampquotBartleby the Scrivenerampquot by Herman Melville, and ampquotAampampPampquot by John ... 1695 words
  • Three Coming of Age Short Stories Three short stories, John Updikeamp39s ampquotAampampPampquot, Frank Oamp39Connoramp39s ampquotFirst Confessionampquot, and Ernest J. Gainesamp39 ampquotThe Sky Is Gray,ampquot all deal with the coming of age of ... 1789 words
  • Management Information Systems ... The approach to information management adopted by companies such as American Airlines, AampampP, Fingerhut, and RR Donnelley ampamp Sons is a task that is neither simple ... 727 words


Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

Newest Essays

Testimonials

  • "Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
    Jack M.
  • "With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
    Brian P.
  • "I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
    Sara J.
  • "I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
    Rachel W.
  • "I love this site!!!"
    Marie N.
Home Join Now Support
Acceptable Use Policy About us FAQ
All papers are for research and reference purposes only!
© 2002-2009 DirectEssays.com. All Rights Reserved.