A & P

A & P

Have you ever disliked a job? The main character in the story is a 19-year-old boy named Sammy working behind the register of the convenient store; which hates his job. The story A & P is written by John Updike. The story takes place in a small grocery store in the middle of a minute town, five miles from the beach. The town is so small that it can be seen in whole from the grocery store window. There are many problems that the main character undergoes. The three dilemmas that he faces throughout the story are the girls, his boss, and his own guilt. He faces many hardships throughout the short story, but in the end does what he believes to be correct.

"In walks these girls in nothing but bathing suits"(Paragraph 1). The girls caught Sammy's attention; he was in awe by the way they were dressed. He had never seen anyone enter the convenient store dressed like that. The women that usually enter the store "generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the streets." (91). Sammy is a very sarcastic individual, and passes judgment on what he thinks of them throughout the story. The first girl that Sammy notices is a plump girl with a "soft looking can with those two crescents of white just under it one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose" (1). The sight of her made him mistakenly charge a woman standing in line twice for a box of crackers. "I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. She's one of these cash register watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheek bones and no eye brows, and I know it made her day to trip me up"(1). The second girl that Sammy notices is much cuter than the first one. She was very tall. He thought to himself that she was "the kind of girl other girls think is very "striking" and "attractive" but never quite makes it, and they very well know, which is why they like her so much"(2). The last girl that he notices is a short girl and he refers to her as "'the queen'". She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn't look around, not this queen, she just walked straight and slowly, on these prima-donna legs. She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn't walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step"(2).

Sammy considered the first two girls that he saw "sheep" (90) following Queenie, because they walked everywhere following right behind her. The bathing suit Queenie was wearing was "dirty-pink...the straps were down."(90) This made her appear to be naked from the top of the suit up. Sammy really liked her. He and his co-worker did not have anything to do until they came to their register so they watched and waited. Queenie knew that the two boys were watching her, but did not acknowledge them.

Sammy's boss approaches the girls dressed in their inappropriate clothing and says "Girls this isn't the beach." Which makes Queenie feel uneasy; making her blush. Sammy realizes that she is higher class than he is. He slips into a type of dream where he is in her living room "Her father and the other men were standing in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoons stenciled on." (92). Queenie