A & P By John Updike Character Analysis

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To be a hero is a title an abounding amount of people crave, but to be an unsuspected hero is a title less desired. The short story A & P by John Updike, allows Sammy to perceive being the objectified women’s hero. Sammy has had a prolonged position as a competent cashier at the A & P, and Updike decides to cut Sammy’s position short by attempting to be a working class hero to Queenie and her middle class friends. As you notice that Updike descriptiveness throughout the story gives you the perception that Sammy has worked there an extended period. The narrator explains, “…it 's more complicated than you think, and after you do it [often enough], it begins to make a little song, that you hear words to, in my case "Hello (bing) there, you (gung) hap-py pee-pul (splat)"-the splat being the drawer flying out” (6). This indicates that he knows all the little cashier noises that come intact with a purchase. The little noises have been familiarized to him so much that he created a song to go along with them. As well as him claiming, that he had completed the task often enough explains he is prolonged A & P employee. Updike uses comestibles throughout the …show more content…
He objectified them as pretty girls, “…more than pretty” (2). He admits that they are pretty girls to be shopping, but “You never know for sure how girls ' minds work (do you really think it 's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glassjar?)” (2). This explains to us that Updike classifies the girl as if they have no brain, but insists that girls just have something small and dumb like a bee buzzing around in their brains. Later, he comes to realize that even in Queenie’s voice, “Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony” (5). When he heard her voice, he was caught off guard, not expecting her to sound with a tone, or even to say something

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