“A&P,” by John Updike, is a wonderful short story that progresses in an interesting manner. Updike’s creative, interesting writing helps the story progress rapidly, while at the same time capturing emotions of the narrator, Sammy. Updike, in “A&P,” creates an interesting story in an everyday environment, and it is this creativity that excites us as readers.
Updike begins the story from Sammy’s point of view at work at a store called A&P. The story begins with the line, “In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” Immediately, this sentence catches the reader’s attention: What? What are these three girls doing in only bathing suits? Where are they, what are they doing, with such little attire?
The readers keep on reading. We realize that the girls are in a grocery store, milling about, looking around at items. Sammy’s attention is really focused on the three girls. His attention though is caught by one of the three girls who stands out in particular. Sammy vividly and beautifully describes her in a “dirty pink-beige maybe” bathing suit, with her body that has the straps of her bathing suit falling off. The line, “this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light,” paints a vivid picture and really captures the reader’s imagination. The simply worded description, “She had a sort of oaky hair that the sun and salt had bleached, done up in a bun that was unraveling, and a kind of prim face,” captures the reader’s attention—the reader actually wants to find out more about her. Sammy’s, or rather Updike’s, description of this girl elevates an ordinary girl to a girl who is something really special. As said in the story, “I mean, it (the description, as well as the girl) was more than pretty.” (3)
As the story progresses, Sammy’s attention is still focused upon the three girls, but especially the one he so vividly describes. It is interesting to see how Sammy elevates the girl in the “dirty pink-beige maybe” bathing suit, by degrading the other two girls. One girl is constantly referred to as being “fat”, and also one girl is humorously nicknamed “Big Tall Goony-Goony”; the two girls are compared to “sheep” following Queenie (the girl who has captivated Sammy) (5). As the other two girls are lowered in value, Queenie only seems to grow in beauty and importance.
A critical point of the story is when the three girls find themselves in a pickle in A&P. The manager of the store, Lengel, comes and scolds the girls for wearing such little attire in a public store. “This isn’t the beach,” Lengel says, causing Queenie to blush and feel very ashamed of herself (12). The lead girl, Queenie, says all she wanted to do was buy some snacks for her mother. But, Lengel continues to enforce this strict clothing policy, and Queenie only becomes more “ashamed” of this scolding as she tries to defend herself and her sheep. Queenie becomes extremely embarrassed, blushing the shade of a sunburn (15), of her being a part of a “scene” in the grocery store. The girls leave the store disgraced, humiliated, crushed.
The most interesting part of the story is Sammy’s reaction to this crushing blow, by the ruthless Lengel:
Lengel asks, “Did you say something, Sammy?”
“I said I quit.”(Sammy)
“I thought you did.”
“You didn’t have to embarrass them.”
Lengel tries to reconcile with Sammy, but the cash register boy is adamant—he “remembers how Lengel made that pretty girl blush, and he punches the No Sale tab, folds his apron” and walks out (30). The readers, I, respect Sammy. He is a hero. He fights for what he believes. What a man. What a man.
Wait…”I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course,” details Sammy. The girls, Queenie, and in fact nobody is truly there to witness Sammy’s heroic, noble act. Nobody, but the reader is there to see what has happened at this ordinary grocery store, on an ordinary day, concerning an ordinary, or rather heroic, cash-register boy. Though the fact that there are no witnesses of Sammy’s act might seem like an anticlimax, it actually makes the reader appreciate Sammy’s behavior and attitude more. I respect Sammy. What a man. What a man. (727)
1 comment:
Aravind, we didn't talk about that part of the story much, so thank you fo r looking a little more closely at the very end of the story. For me, it raises the question of whether Sammy's heroic gesture is more or less meaningful if no one was there to witness it. I've always thought that the ending served to u ndercut the grand gesture, as though to say, this is life. We take our best shot to move up to a new level and do the right thing, and we're left all alone and suddenly feeling rather futile. But I gather you see a little more to it.
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