A&P

A detailed Summary of A&P


John Updike's A & P, is a story about a boy named Sammy. Sammy is nineteen and works as a clerk in an A & P. For the most part Sammy does not seem to mind his job, until the day that the three girls came into the store with just their bathing suits on. He watches the girls as they slowly move through the store looking for Fancy Herring Snacks. When the girls arrive at the checkout, the owner appears and puts down the girls for their inappropriate attire. Sammy attempts to play the hero by quitting his job in order to protest the treatment of the girls. He did this only to impress the girls and to grab their attention. His plan failed however, because when he walked outside hoping to meet with the girls, they were already gone.

Looking at the descriptions Updike uses with the girls it is very clear that Sammy does not have his mind on his job. Sammy is being a very typical adolescent male with sex on the mind. The first girl that Sammy notices is "Plaid". He starts first by analyzing the curves of her body, and then takes his mind straight to her butt. His concentration on her butt gives us a good mental picture of it as having "a good tan and a sweet board soft-looking can with those two cres


The girl that Sammy likes the most is "Queenie". Queenie, who is the leader of the girls, is also the most pretentious. This could have to do with the reason that Sammy likes her the most. There is nothing about Queenie that Sammy did not seem to notice.

Sammy could still be considered heroic, although for a different reason. He took a chance trying to get the girls, and even though he did not succeed, he should still be commended. Taking chances is part of the process of moving from being an adolescent to being an adult. Sammy does not fret over his failure either, he just moves on.

When the girls come up to the checkout, Sammy's thoughts once again become quite obvious. Queenie "lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top". When she does this the jar of Fancy Herring Snacks went heavy in Sammy's hand. Cashing the girls out was not his thoughts at that point.

cents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the back of her legs". Not only did Sammy notice her butt, but then his thoughts traveled to her breasts. He was quick to notice that "the seams on her bra were still sharp". This shows S

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 802
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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