John Updike's A & P
John Updike’s “A&P” begins “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits”(487). The title and first line surprise us almost as much as the girls did the other characters in the story. We are surprised again when Sammy, the narrator, quits his checkout job at the end of the story. Sammy does not tell us anything about himself except his age, 19. Updike decided it was important we understand Sammy is at the point in his life where decisions are made that affect the rest of our lives. In the time span of about ten minutes, the realities of Sammy’s life are brought into sharp focus. The girls have dropped in by chance from a more affluent environment. Sammy sees through them the possibilities for a different sort of life than the one he’s headed for. The other customers and employees are related to us mostly by their reaction to the girls. They are shocked by the girls’ appearance, but immediately go back to their shopping. Sammy is amused by this “pretty hilarious…eyes snapped back to their own basket…there was no doubt, this jiggled them”(488). Sammy refers to them as animals several times “the sheep pushing their carts down the aisles”(488) and “scared pigs in a chute”(491). He does not have much respe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Updikes A&P, Lengel Sammy, people sammy, lengel sammy, girls bathing, embarrassed girls, sammy thinking, girl blush,
Approximate Word count = 1586
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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