The Girls at the A&P: Sammy's Analysis - Essay Sample

Introduction

The story revolves around three girls who walk in A&P grocery, wearing only bathing suits. A young man stationed at checkout point by the name Sammy applauds them, noting the tiniest details about their behavior. He even guesses what motivates them to get into the grocery in that dress code, and also guesses their probable personalities. Although he analyses the three girls, Sammy is fixated at the girl who she views as the most attractive. He also thinks that she is likely to be the leader of that group and calls her Queenie. There is a lot of uproars as the girls move around the store shopping. They would not go unnoticed because A&P was located at a central place in town away from beaches where the attire would attract lesser attention. Other staff, including Stokesie, stares at these girls (Blodgett, 236). At one point, Sammy pities them for compromising themselves but is quickly excited when they decided to purchase from his checkout point.

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The girls are immediately reproved by Lengel, the store manager, for breaking the store's policies by coming in bathing suits. They get embarrassed, but Queenie protests stating that her mother sent her to buy herring snacks, a statement that gives Sammy an understanding of her life. When the girls started leaving the store, Sammy turned to Lengel and quitted job on the basis that Lengel embarrassed those girls. Lengel persuades Sammy not to stop and warns him of frustrating his parents and regretting later. Sammy was hopeful that the girls noticed, he, therefore, ignores Lengel's persuasion and exits them store (Blodgett, 237). Unfortunately, the girls never saw as they were long gone. He was left in ambiguity, unaware of what life has in store for him. The primary setting of this story is A&P, with Sammy as the main character. The young man boldly rebels against the entire social and market systems about the story's historical context. It is, therefore, possible to examine the uniqueness of the predicament between rebelling and obeying. The dilemma amid rebelling and obeying is, therefore, the major conflict in the story, "A&P, "authored by John Updike.

Sammy, who serves at one of the checkout lines, is the main character in this story. The young man rebels against the standards and rules set by his employer A&P stores representing how people are rebellious to the social norms structures and systems. This rebellion locally reflects the ideologies, cultural changes, and ideas that American society upheld in the 1960s. In the 1960s, people engaged in a lot of confrontations at all levels of life, ranging from cultural, political, social, and economical setups.

The setting of the story was in the USA during the 1960s. It was a time that the nation was experiencing impacts of postwar, which was viewed as a moment of freedom and prosperity. American society was, therefore, in dire need of the advancement of both cultural and social aspects. Sammy's character can, therefore, be explained as the initial representation of critics (Stearns et al., 394). The criticism focus on particular characteristics of social life, as well as the uniqueness of boundaries and social restrictions. They are in the mind of the public; hence in the text, they are ideologically supported by consumers.

There is irony revolving around the settings and the characters of the story. There is conflicting opinions of the people's perception of rules and ethics. The people's perceptions of these values are dependent on consumerism ideologies, which develop due to the upcoming freedom and opinions with deviance from the prejudgments. All the same, the cynical romance displayed by Sammy is due to his young age.

Queenie and her two counterparts are other characters in the story. The three characters face scandalous attitudes from fellow customers, are mocked by staff, and are sharply reprimanded by the manager leading to great embarrassment. The girls wore bathing suits against the expectation of other people. Sammy has not said anything yet; hence he passively observes girl's indictment of the social norms. Sammy actively participated in this conflict when he quitted employment. As a result, Sammy has to endure unemployment as well as the loss of social status. The calamity hits him immediately as he comprehends that there are tough times ahead (Stearns et al., 396). The epiphany, therefore, enlightens the reader on the severe consequences faced by Sammy for denouncing the set societal guidelines.

Both the shoppers and the girls are static characters because they do not display complexities or any other changes throughout the story. Sammy, however, has a different view of the shoppers and the girls. He describes these girls as independent and beautiful while describing the rest of the shoppers as 'house slaves". For instance, in one scenario, Sammy describes the girls walking against the traffic, while for the other customers, he said they are sheep pushing the carts.

The customers referred to as "sheep" represented how rigid the society was to the social norms. The girls, however, were a representation of the emergence of autonomy in American culture in the 1960s. Sammy refers to customers as pigs and sheep on several occasions. The terms are not meant to abuse; instead, they are illustrations of social conformity and passivity at the time of the story (Stearns et al., 406). The harassment encountered by the girls, however, represents the sufferings experienced by individuals or groups of people who broke the norms by acting otherwise.

While Sammy suffers the consequences for supporting social deviance, the manager, Mr. Lengel, acts on the contrary. Lengel reprimands these teenage girls without minding the embarrassment that he would cause them in front of other customers. This is a representation of two things. The first thing is the confrontational state of the time. For instance, across the economy and political realms of the US in 1960s, there were several confrontations across all leadership positions. The encounters were meant to defend the upheld political, social, and economic values of the time.

The second thing represented by Lengel was how leaders would go to any length to embarrass anyone who broke the social norms of the time. For instance, being the manager of A& P stores, he ensures he reprimands the girls to encourage anyone who would want to act similarly. It was also a way of appraising the other customers who were irritated. This shows that most of the leaders did not waiver from the set rules(Huang). It also seemed a wrong move to question social, economic, and political values of the time this story was written.

Conclusion

A&P story is like a fictional elements web whose analysis and deconstruction of this web uncovers ideas that were previously concealed. The elements of this story are interrelated. The plot acts as a frame through which the other components are organized. The story settings and characters are symbols used in revealing the theme of the story. As analyzed in this paper, the characters and settings show the societal expectations and repercussions for rebelling. For instance, the young man, Sammy, has to endure suffering due to his choice to stand individually and defend the girls who were allegedly defying social norms.

Works Cited

Blodgett, Harriet. "Updike's A&P." The Explicator 61.4 (2003): 236-237. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00144940309597826?journalCode=vexp20

Huang, Shihai. "Narrative Strategies in John Updike's Novels." International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities: 1. http://www.ijssu.com/Papers/Vol%202,%20No%203%20(IJSSU%202019).pdf#page=5

Stearns, Jennie, Jennifer A. Sandlin, and Jake Burdick. "Resistance on aisle three? Exploring the big curriculum of consumption and the impossibility of resistance in John Updike's "A&P." Curriculum Inquiry 41.3 (2011): 394-415. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2011.00553.x