The story A&P, takes place in a convenience store in a small New England town during the 1960's. A young cashier named Sammy working at the A&P store notices three girls walk in wearing only their bikinis. Sammy, being 19 years old naturally finds interest and begins intently watching the girls as they walk the store. However, this was a time where girls were scrutinized for the way they portrayed themselves and were expected to act "decently". Wearing a bikini into a public store certainly wasn't many people's idea of decent, and it was sure to cause problems eventually.
Sammy studied the way they walked, he was very distracted from his work, while ringing up the customers he could hardly keep on task. Sammy being a typical "well intentioned male trying to find his way in society" takes a striking notice to these girls because everybody in the area seems to be the same, there is hardly any new surprises. Sammy even goes as far as to describe the people of the town to be …show more content…
Sammy then tells off his manager and quits, running out of the store to catch up with the girls but they were no where to be found. Updike, throughout the story, describes Sammy as being different from Queenie and Sammy is fully aware of this. Updike used these differences to claim their class distinctions as Sammy represents the "blue collar" worker and Queenie being of a "white collar" family. Sammy was looking for not just any girl but a girl who could show him more to life than he could find in his boring Massachusetts town. Not just any girl could do this however Sammy felt that because of Queenie's interpreted social status, she could show him the "finer aspects of life" or so it seemed. This is the main reason Sammy quit his job may very well be because he realizes such differences in his social class from hers and the only way to escape such boredom of his town was the escape the "blue collar"
Sammy studied the way they walked, he was very distracted from his work, while ringing up the customers he could hardly keep on task. Sammy being a typical "well intentioned male trying to find his way in society" takes a striking notice to these girls because everybody in the area seems to be the same, there is hardly any new surprises. Sammy even goes as far as to describe the people of the town to be …show more content…
Sammy then tells off his manager and quits, running out of the store to catch up with the girls but they were no where to be found. Updike, throughout the story, describes Sammy as being different from Queenie and Sammy is fully aware of this. Updike used these differences to claim their class distinctions as Sammy represents the "blue collar" worker and Queenie being of a "white collar" family. Sammy was looking for not just any girl but a girl who could show him more to life than he could find in his boring Massachusetts town. Not just any girl could do this however Sammy felt that because of Queenie's interpreted social status, she could show him the "finer aspects of life" or so it seemed. This is the main reason Sammy quit his job may very well be because he realizes such differences in his social class from hers and the only way to escape such boredom of his town was the escape the "blue collar"