In John Updikes A&P, choices and consequences are portrayed as a fundamental and recurring theme throughout the story. The story is about a 19 year old boy named Sammy, who works as a check-out clerk at the local grocery store in town. On Thursday three girls coming from the local beach, 5miles away walked in to the store with bikinis one and no shoes. The A&P store Sammy works at is an everyday run at the mill kind of place; “if you stand in at the front doors you can see two banks and the congregational church and the newspaper store and three real-estates offices…there’s people in this town haven’t seen the ocean for twenty years” (236). This detail of the surrounding gives us the feeling that this town is small and everything around it
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Even though Sammy knows the value of working and earns money, in this small town he is portrayed as someone who refuses to be stuck in the same old job. There are two other character that also work at the store with Sammy, One is named Lengel who is the head manager and the other is his friend/co-worker Stokesie. Lengel is an older gentleman that is a friend of Sammy’s parents; and Stokesie is described by Sammy as being married with two babies and “he thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day” (236). Two people that Sammy doesn’t seem to want to be like in the …show more content…
Sammy and the girls wore some of the significant symbols in the story. For in steads, the girls bathing suits represented breaking the rules, going against the norm, escape from the real world, and being free. Sammy’s uniform he wore to work was another symbol. When he quit and took off his apron and bow tie, he was going against an authority figure, breaking free from the uniform, making decisions for himself and following his instinct. He was learning to make choices for himself, like all of us adults do every day. If there was a consequence by him quitting he was going to figure it out on his own; even though Sammy didn’t get to run away with those girls, like he thought it would happen, when he walked out those doors Updike let us know that Sammy was still okay with his choice. He reflects and said “now here comes the part of the story, at least my family says it’s sad, but I don’t think it’s sad myself”
Even though Sammy knows the value of working and earns money, in this small town he is portrayed as someone who refuses to be stuck in the same old job. There are two other character that also work at the store with Sammy, One is named Lengel who is the head manager and the other is his friend/co-worker Stokesie. Lengel is an older gentleman that is a friend of Sammy’s parents; and Stokesie is described by Sammy as being married with two babies and “he thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day” (236). Two people that Sammy doesn’t seem to want to be like in the …show more content…
Sammy and the girls wore some of the significant symbols in the story. For in steads, the girls bathing suits represented breaking the rules, going against the norm, escape from the real world, and being free. Sammy’s uniform he wore to work was another symbol. When he quit and took off his apron and bow tie, he was going against an authority figure, breaking free from the uniform, making decisions for himself and following his instinct. He was learning to make choices for himself, like all of us adults do every day. If there was a consequence by him quitting he was going to figure it out on his own; even though Sammy didn’t get to run away with those girls, like he thought it would happen, when he walked out those doors Updike let us know that Sammy was still okay with his choice. He reflects and said “now here comes the part of the story, at least my family says it’s sad, but I don’t think it’s sad myself”