This quote by Paul Lederach, Professor of Peace-Building at Notre Dame reaches out especially to John Updike's "A&P." Sammy suffered a variety of conflicts in the story including conflict among characters, conflict among characters and environment, and a conflict of his own personal thoughts leading him eventually to develop as a person. Conflicts throughout this short story illustrate how the narration used by the author was not only reliable but absolutely necessary to obtain the view point intended by Updike. Through various conflicts calling for this specific first person narration, John Updike shows us how Sammy was able to grow and mature as a person.

First, Sammy is faced with the conflict among characters. One conflict Sammy seems to have is the conflict with Stokesie. "Stokesie's married with two babies," and twenty two opposed to Sammy's nineteen. (115) Although Stokesie's life forces him to be much more mature, Sammy feels like they are on the same level other than his family and a few years. Sammy's other conflict among characters is with L

Next, Sammy confronts a conflict between himself and his environment. In this story, Sammy is conveyed as a chivalrous, romantic, confused man child whose surroundings at the A&P are enhanced by three bathing suited beauties. All along the reader is able to see Sammy's contempt for his environment in that Sammy senses a world of possibility beyond the hum drum life he presently leads. These girls are obviously a vibrant change to the "sheep pushing their carts down the aisle." (Updike, 114) Sammy further realizes the monotony of his job as he begins to analyze Queenie, "a place from which the crowd who runs the "A&P" looks pretty crummy." (Updike 116) Sammy's conflicts do not end here though. Sammy also matches himself up against this manager. After Lengel corrects the girls for their inappropriate attire in the store, Sammy takes offense to this and informs the manager, his superior, his family friend that he "didn't have to embarrass them....I quit." (117) This not only shows his blatant disregard for the store's rules, but for superior roles as well. By his attempt to ensure the girls' satisfaction, Sammy went against any rational loyalty that he could have had to his parents and his manager. He opposed the opinions of

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Approximate Word count = 829
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)