A & P And How To Talk To Girls At Parties, By Neil Gaiman

The short stories “A & P” by John Updike, “Burn Burning” by William Faulkner, and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman all have similarities and differences. All three stories involve teen age boys as their main characters. All three stories are told in third person by the boys. Another similarity of the three stories is the three main characters in the books are starting to mature from childhood to adulthood and trying to better themselves. The three stories are also different in several ways. They are all trying to achieve different goals; being a “hero” to the girls, getting a friend to talk to girls, and choosing his gut feeling over his father. All three stories also happened in different time periods, which make them …show more content…
Sammy worked at a local grocery store called A&P. One day when he was behind the counter at the cash register three girls walked in nothing but bikinis. The way Sammy explained the girls; they should not have been in the swim suits for their body figures. When they were checking out in Sammy line, the manager, Lengle, came out and told the girls not to come back in with just bikinis. The girls got really embarrassed and ran out of the grocery store. Well, Sammy followed and told Lengle “I quit”. (Updike 20) Sammy explains that he quit the job because he wanted to be a hero for the girls and basically thought Lengle handled the situation incorrectly and did not want to put up with it and work …show more content…
The court room is also shared with the local country store. Sarty is in court with his father, Abner Snopes, being accused of burning down Mr. Harris’s barn. Sarty is called up in court to testify against his father, he then lies and said his father did not burn the barns. When Abner finds out Sarty was on the verge of betraying him in court, he hits him and tells him he needs to stick by his family. Abner was about to set de Spain, Abner employee, barn on fire, but Sarty warned him what his father was about to do. That was just too much for Abner, he left Sarty. Abner sets de Spain’s barn on fire after Sarty heard three gun shots and saw glowing red. “How to talk to girls at parties” by Neil Gaiman is about two boys who attended an all boys school. Vic, a boy who has a lot of girlfriends, was trying to get his friend, Enn, to come to a party with him. Enn was not too excited about the whole thing, but Vic made him go and talk to girls. Vic was a boy that is very smooth when it comes to talking to girls, where Enn is shy and awkward. Vic left Enn in the hallway as he started talking to a girl he met. Eventually, Enn met a girl as well and started talking to