I thought that Sammy was going against society's expectations during his final action of quitting the grocery store. Sammy is young and discovering his capability of making his own choices in the world. He chooses to go against society's expectations and quit his job to follow 'his girls'. The use of a possessive word before girls shows that they belong to him, they are his. He also uses very descriptive words to describe the appearance of the girls in, at first, a negative tone. Updike wrote, "'She was a chunky kid; with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs.'" He went into great detail about this girl, he studied her pretty hard to be able to do that. Sammy uses a ton of metaphors to describe people around the store. I think the one relating the other people in the store to sheep is a big one. These are the people that just go through the motions and conform to society, they don't think. I also think that it being in a grocery store, this is a family setting, The girls coming in in swimsuits is unexpected in this setting especially since the other women in the store are well covered since this was a time that women were not supposed to show a lot of skin. The use of all these elements help support that Sammy's final action of quitting his job is him saying that he is not going to conform to society's expectations.
Sammy's final actions can be read from several different perspectives. One of these is that Sammy is a teenage male objectifying these girls that happen to walk into the store showing a little skin. His immediate reaction upon seeing them was to compare them to items in the store. For example, there was the heavier girl he compared to a can, or the one he called Queenie whose breasts he compared to smooth scoops of vanilla ice cream. He spends every moment he can watching them as they walk through the store. He sounds judgmental in his assessments of them up until they are being criticized by someone else. It is almost as if he has claimed them. He then quits hoping that they see and he can be their unexpected hero. To further reinforce the idea that he somehow possesses these girls he has never met his first action is to look around for "his girls." Sammy's actions all appear to be driven by his 19-year-old male libido.
If revising for an academic essay, add more specificity to the first sentence. E.g. Sammy may view his final action as a heroic gesture to the shamed girls, but it is more out of ....
There are many different ways his final action can be read. His word choices are certainly intriguing. The way he leaves the store and looks for "my girls" is interesting. If he would have said "the girls", it would have implied that he just thought of them as people. Instead, "my" implies a possessive feeling he has over them, like they're "his" girls. His age is also worthy of note. He is only 19, just a year older than myself. He is technically an adult, but he is still looking for his place in the world and still has strong sexual desires. This helps explain why he gives such vivid suggestive descriptions of the girls in the store. Additionally, the setting of the grocery store is also important. The grocery store in the 1950's was a place where housewives, the traditional woman of the time, went to get food for her family. This was a very formal, ship-shape place where social experimentation was not tolerated, especially where girls could go to stray from the norm. All of this provides a very interesting premise for the story, one that cannot be solved with a simple explanation. Lastly, the metaphors Sammy uses are important too. He repeatedly calls the people of the store "sheep", "scared pigs in the chute", and other similar phrases. This is because he is beginning to realize the prevalence of corporate America, and how he is seeing it unfold before him. He sees people who are like the walking dead, living among him with no purpose but to serve their conformist society. He is scared he will end up like them, and is a big reason why he ends up choosing to quit his job.
In A & P, by John Updike, Sammy, a young man of nineteen, quit his job in order to impress three attractive "girls." The three young women wander into the store he worked in wearing bikinis, even though it was nowhere near the beach. When the young women are ready to check out the manager walks up to them, and tells them their bikinis are inappropriate in the store. The young man decided to quit as the women are leaving in order to take the attention off of them. He says, "The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero(5)." While I think some people would admire him for standing up for these "girls" who were being "harassed" by a store manager, I think he was foolish. He was not doing it for the good of society; he was quitting his job to impress them. Why else would he try and say he was quitting in their ear shot. He wanted to be their "hero" as if they needed saving. I don't think quitting a job to impress people is admirable; if you want to quit your job it should be for a good reason. He was being foolish and young. It also was not admirable that he was so demeaning to these young women. He called them girls as if they were children, and they are not. Secondly he called them "Quennie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony- Goony(5)." He did not know their names, but I think he could have thought up a better way to distinguish the young women. The names are demeaning and sound childish. He sounds younger than nineteen, because of the names he calls them. Once he realized the consequences of his decision he regretted quitting. He said, "...it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it." He was foolish because he quit his job. He is prideful because he does not want to change his mind. It is "fatal not to go through with it" because it comes at the cost of his pride. He wanted his job back. At the end of the story he looked back in the window; people who don't regret what they have done don't look back. I think he was foolish to quit his job and did it to impress the girls. However, I think some people would say he was bored with the normal day to day grind. He worked in a grocery store, which can be repetitious as you check out each costumer. When he looked back at the store he saw Lengel working to check out customers. He said, "...I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." Lengel had an "injection of iron." When I think of iron I think of machines. Lengel had become part of the machine. The machine that is hard work, and the day to day grind. The machine that serves the people, "sheep." The "sheep" just follow each other through this machine, which is society. Sammy is no longer a part of the machine since he quit. He is on his own - which is why life is going to be "hard." I don't think Sammy quit his job, because he did not want to be part of the machine. He did it to impress the girls. I think he did not even realize that there was this machine until after he quit his job. http://aplitmd.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-p.html
Good insight into the machine and explanation of how he might have regretted his spontaneous announcement. Why does he perhaps not realize the machine until after he quits? What does that last paragraph really mean?
In my opinion, Sammy quit the store not because he wanted to necessarily show his independence, but because he wanted to go after the girls. Much of the story, his word choice suggests that he objectifies the girls. He describes them with words like “long white prima-donna legs” and Queenie’s breasts as “the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known there were”. He is more interested in the way they look than particularly gaining independence. His age is 19 which is only a little bit older than the guys my own age. Sammy experiences sexual desire and it is portrayed in the way he watches the girls. He waits for them each time they take a round of the store watching closely how they walk. “The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they’d come out of.” Sammy watches as Queenie leads the pack and says he leads the rest of them showing them just how to walk. His intense description of “Queenie and Plaid and the Big Tall Goony-Goony” as he calls them, shows that he is only concerned with them. Towards the end of the story he calls them “my girls” when looking for them after quitting his job. It was one word but it seemed to change how he saw the girls totally. To continue with the metaphors Sammy used to describe people, he called them sheep. The sheep are the people in the store just following their every day motions and working in a grocery store where people gathered. In the 1950s, this was a place people gathered to almost socialize and it was a way people conformed to society. It was odd because the girls dressed in bathing suits were non-conforming versus the women who went to the grocery store to shop for their families. The sheep showed the contrast between the half-naked girls and the rest of the world. It showed Sammy a way to express himself which could have also been a possible reason for him quitting. It showed him there were different things in the world besides his societal norm grocery store job.
How does the metaphor of sheep complicate his final action? Are the girls intentionally non-conforming? How do they seem to react/respond to this situation?
Sammy's final action can be seen as desperate, rebellious, and independent. By describing the other people at the grocery store as sheep and pigs in a chute, it shows that his made his final action as a chance to rebel against the normal, mindless people and become independent. His word choice involving the girls shows his desperation for the girls when he makes the transition from "the girls" to "my girls". He begins to think of those girls as his because his made this huge decision for him, and because of that, he was somehow a part of them. It's a weird way of thinking that Sammy has, but I think that it was a good idea for him to quit. I think that if he worked there much longer, he would become one of those mindless animals.
The A&P can be seen as a representation of society. Sammy is almost 19 and works as a cashier at the small store. Sammy uses phrases like "you know" and "I guess," to speak casually to the reader, though he is very observant of people and can gain insight based on his observations. He refers to the customers at the A&P as "sheep," which could mean that they all look and act similarly. They flock together and follow the lead of one another, there is no straying. This "flock of sheep" embodies the effects of society and though there is no rule that says people must conform to society's expectations, they typically do. The setting of the A&P is significant because a grocery store is a stereotypical place for a teenage boy to work - an example of Sammy conforming to society. It also enhances the contrast between the people that usually shop there - the stereotypical housewife with pin curlers in her hair - and Queenie. When the three girls walk in wearing nothing but bathing suits they automatically catch the eye of everyone in the store, specifically Sammy's. He notices very specific details about each of the girls that many would simply see as a reaction expected of a teenage boy. While Sammy is physically attracted to the girls, he seems more intrigued by their bravery to contradict social norms. The girls come to resemble confidence and independence, though they still seem nervous, mostly likely because being different makes them part of a minority in a world of "sheep." When Sammy's manager approaches the girls and tells them "We want you decently dressed when you come in here," Queenie tells him they are decent as if to defend their individuality. Sammy quitting is a portrayal of freedom and making your own choices, though he announces his resignation with the intention of the girls hearing him. This implies that he wants to be included in their group of distinctiveness but the girls don't hear him (or maybe they do) and keep walking. This is somewhat ironic because the girls are meant to symbolize originality though there's a clear "leader" (Queenie) that is showing the other two how to walk and present themselves in a way that's different from normal, defeating the purpose if they are simply now conforming to Queenie's expectations rather than society's. In the end Sammy is left by himself, jobless, and states "my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." To me, this was Sammy realizing that if you choose to be your own person and ignore societal expectations you truly have to be your own person and face the difficulty of choosing your own direction rather than following someone else's actions.
I thought that Sammy was going against society's expectations during his final action of quitting the grocery store. Sammy is young and discovering his capability of making his own choices in the world. He chooses to go against society's expectations and quit his job to follow 'his girls'. The use of a possessive word before girls shows that they belong to him, they are his. He also uses very descriptive words to describe the appearance of the girls in, at first, a negative tone. Updike wrote, "'She was a chunky kid; with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs.'" He went into great detail about this girl, he studied her pretty hard to be able to do that. Sammy uses a ton of metaphors to describe people around the store. I think the one relating the other people in the store to sheep is a big one. These are the people that just go through the motions and conform to society, they don't think. I also think that it being in a grocery store, this is a family setting, The girls coming in in swimsuits is unexpected in this setting especially since the other women in the store are well covered since this was a time that women were not supposed to show a lot of skin. The use of all these elements help support that Sammy's final action of quitting his job is him saying that he is not going to conform to society's expectations.
ReplyDeleteHow do the metaphors develop/support his views, and his final action?
DeleteSammy's final actions can be read from several different perspectives. One of these is that Sammy is a teenage male objectifying these girls that happen to walk into the store showing a little skin. His immediate reaction upon seeing them was to compare them to items in the store. For example, there was the heavier girl he compared to a can, or the one he called Queenie whose breasts he compared to smooth scoops of vanilla ice cream. He spends every moment he can watching them as they walk through the store. He sounds judgmental in his assessments of them up until they are being criticized by someone else. It is almost as if he has claimed them. He then quits hoping that they see and he can be their unexpected hero. To further reinforce the idea that he somehow possesses these girls he has never met his first action is to look around for "his girls." Sammy's actions all appear to be driven by his 19-year-old male libido.
ReplyDeleteIf revising for an academic essay, add more specificity to the first sentence. E.g. Sammy may view his final action as a heroic gesture to the shamed girls, but it is more out of ....
DeleteThere are many different ways his final action can be read. His word choices are certainly intriguing. The way he leaves the store and looks for "my girls" is interesting. If he would have said "the girls", it would have implied that he just thought of them as people. Instead, "my" implies a possessive feeling he has over them, like they're "his" girls. His age is also worthy of note. He is only 19, just a year older than myself. He is technically an adult, but he is still looking for his place in the world and still has strong sexual desires. This helps explain why he gives such vivid suggestive descriptions of the girls in the store. Additionally, the setting of the grocery store is also important. The grocery store in the 1950's was a place where housewives, the traditional woman of the time, went to get food for her family. This was a very formal, ship-shape place where social experimentation was not tolerated, especially where girls could go to stray from the norm. All of this provides a very interesting premise for the story, one that cannot be solved with a simple explanation. Lastly, the metaphors Sammy uses are important too. He repeatedly calls the people of the store "sheep", "scared pigs in the chute", and other similar phrases. This is because he is beginning to realize the prevalence of corporate America, and how he is seeing it unfold before him. He sees people who are like the walking dead, living among him with no purpose but to serve their conformist society. He is scared he will end up like them, and is a big reason why he ends up choosing to quit his job.
ReplyDeleteHow do the animal metaphors relate to corporate America? So is quitting his job a symbolic act of "quitting" middle class norms and society?
DeleteIn A & P, by John Updike, Sammy, a young man of nineteen, quit his job in order to impress three attractive "girls." The three young women wander into the store he worked in wearing bikinis, even though it was nowhere near the beach. When the young women are ready to check out the manager walks up to them, and tells them their bikinis are inappropriate in the store. The young man decided to quit as the women are leaving in order to take the attention off of them. He says, "The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero(5)." While I think some people would admire him for standing up for these "girls" who were being "harassed" by a store manager, I think he was foolish. He was not doing it for the good of society; he was quitting his job to impress them. Why else would he try and say he was quitting in their ear shot. He wanted to be their "hero" as if they needed saving. I don't think quitting a job to impress people is admirable; if you want to quit your job it should be for a good reason. He was being foolish and young. It also was not admirable that he was so demeaning to these young women. He called them girls as if they were children, and they are not. Secondly he called them "Quennie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony- Goony(5)." He did not know their names, but I think he could have thought up a better way to distinguish the young women. The names are demeaning and sound childish. He sounds younger than nineteen, because of the names he calls them.
ReplyDeleteOnce he realized the consequences of his decision he regretted quitting. He said, "...it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it." He was foolish because he quit his job. He is prideful because he does not want to change his mind. It is "fatal not to go through with it" because it comes at the cost of his pride. He wanted his job back. At the end of the story he looked back in the window; people who don't regret what they have done don't look back.
I think he was foolish to quit his job and did it to impress the girls. However, I think some people would say he was bored with the normal day to day grind. He worked in a grocery store, which can be repetitious as you check out each costumer. When he looked back at the store he saw Lengel working to check out customers. He said,
"...I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter."
Lengel had an "injection of iron." When I think of iron I think of machines. Lengel had become part of the machine. The machine that is hard work, and the day to day grind. The machine that serves the people, "sheep." The "sheep" just follow each other through this machine, which is society. Sammy is no longer a part of the machine since he quit. He is on his own - which is why life is going to be "hard." I don't think Sammy quit his job, because he did not want to be part of the machine. He did it to impress the girls. I think he did not even realize that there was this machine until after he quit his job.
http://aplitmd.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-p.html
Good insight into the machine and explanation of how he might have regretted his spontaneous announcement. Why does he perhaps not realize the machine until after he quits? What does that last paragraph really mean?
DeleteIn my opinion, Sammy quit the store not because he wanted to necessarily show his independence, but because he wanted to go after the girls. Much of the story, his word choice suggests that he objectifies the girls. He describes them with words like “long white prima-donna legs” and Queenie’s breasts as “the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known there were”. He is more interested in the way they look than particularly gaining independence. His age is 19 which is only a little bit older than the guys my own age. Sammy experiences sexual desire and it is portrayed in the way he watches the girls. He waits for them each time they take a round of the store watching closely how they walk. “The whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn’t know which tunnel they’d come out of.” Sammy watches as Queenie leads the pack and says he leads the rest of them showing them just how to walk. His intense description of “Queenie and Plaid and the Big Tall Goony-Goony” as he calls them, shows that he is only concerned with them. Towards the end of the story he calls them “my girls” when looking for them after quitting his job. It was one word but it seemed to change how he saw the girls totally. To continue with the metaphors Sammy used to describe people, he called them sheep. The sheep are the people in the store just following their every day motions and working in a grocery store where people gathered. In the 1950s, this was a place people gathered to almost socialize and it was a way people conformed to society. It was odd because the girls dressed in bathing suits were non-conforming versus the women who went to the grocery store to shop for their families. The sheep showed the contrast between the half-naked girls and the rest of the world. It showed Sammy a way to express himself which could have also been a possible reason for him quitting. It showed him there were different things in the world besides his societal norm grocery store job.
ReplyDeleteHow does the metaphor of sheep complicate his final action? Are the girls intentionally non-conforming? How do they seem to react/respond to this situation?
DeleteSammy's final action can be seen as desperate, rebellious, and independent. By describing the other people at the grocery store as sheep and pigs in a chute, it shows that his made his final action as a chance to rebel against the normal, mindless people and become independent. His word choice involving the girls shows his desperation for the girls when he makes the transition from "the girls" to "my girls". He begins to think of those girls as his because his made this huge decision for him, and because of that, he was somehow a part of them. It's a weird way of thinking that Sammy has, but I think that it was a good idea for him to quit. I think that if he worked there much longer, he would become one of those mindless animals.
ReplyDeleteThe A&P can be seen as a representation of society. Sammy is almost 19 and works as a cashier at the small store. Sammy uses phrases like "you know" and "I guess," to speak casually to the reader, though he is very observant of people and can gain insight based on his observations. He refers to the customers at the A&P as "sheep," which could mean that they all look and act similarly. They flock together and follow the lead of one another, there is no straying. This "flock of sheep" embodies the effects of society and though there is no rule that says people must conform to society's expectations, they typically do. The setting of the A&P is significant because a grocery store is a stereotypical place for a teenage boy to work - an example of Sammy conforming to society. It also enhances the contrast between the people that usually shop there - the stereotypical housewife with pin curlers in her hair - and Queenie. When the three girls walk in wearing nothing but bathing suits they automatically catch the eye of everyone in the store, specifically Sammy's. He notices very specific details about each of the girls that many would simply see as a reaction expected of a teenage boy. While Sammy is physically attracted to the girls, he seems more intrigued by their bravery to contradict social norms. The girls come to resemble confidence and independence, though they still seem nervous, mostly likely because being different makes them part of a minority in a world of "sheep." When Sammy's manager approaches the girls and tells them "We want you decently dressed when you come in here," Queenie tells him they are decent as if to defend their individuality. Sammy quitting is a portrayal of freedom and making your own choices, though he announces his resignation with the intention of the girls hearing him. This implies that he wants to be included in their group of distinctiveness but the girls don't hear him (or maybe they do) and keep walking. This is somewhat ironic because the girls are meant to symbolize originality though there's a clear "leader" (Queenie) that is showing the other two how to walk and present themselves in a way that's different from normal, defeating the purpose if they are simply now conforming to Queenie's expectations rather than society's. In the end Sammy is left by himself, jobless, and states "my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." To me, this was Sammy realizing that if you choose to be your own person and ignore societal expectations you truly have to be your own person and face the difficulty of choosing your own direction rather than following someone else's actions.
ReplyDelete