Short Story A & P By John Updike

I always considered money and experience were my first priority until I quit my last job. I was an afterschool teacher. My job was to teach students homework and give them classwork. However, I had a harsh supervisor who goes to church every Sunday and prays to god before each meal. She always stepped in my classroom and watched what I did. Sometimes she told me what I should do and what I should not do. She tried to control me and made me cannot breath. Then, I decided to quit because I did not want to be a follower. I wanted freedom. In the short story “A&P,” John Updike states that a young teenager wants achieve freedom of his own, which is to not be a follower and have a dramatic life, but he realizes everything is not the same as …show more content…
When three girls come to Sammy, Lengel, the store manager, approach them. He embarrasses the girls because he thinks they come to the wrong place. He also says, “After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy.” The word “Policy” states that Lengel is the most powerful man here, and nobody is allowed to break the rules. Everyone should listen to him even the customers. However, Sammy decides to stand up for girls because he wants them to pay attention to him. He also stands up for himself because he wants to achieve his freedom and his power from Lengel. He does not want anyone to tell him what he should do and what he should not do. He wants to be a bird to fly away from the grocery and Lengel. Then, Sammy quits, but Lengel asks him if he knows what he is saying because Lengel knows how poor his family is. He wants to give Sammy the second chance and wants him to understand that think before you take the action. Unfortunately, Sammy does not listen to Lengel and drops the bowtie on the counter because he thinks “it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it.” The word “fatal” says that although Sammy understands quitting this job is a stupid decision, he still goes for it because he does not want to be a follower forever and he wants to be able to make his own choice. If he chooses to be a follower this …show more content…
After Sammy quits, he rushes out the grocery store to try to catch up the girls. However, he does not see his girls. They are gone. This scene shows that Sammy realizes he is so naive and he is just a loser because he expects those three girls maybe say thank you to him or invite him to join their vacation since he stands up for them. In reality he does not get what he expects from the girls, which is to bring him to beach. When Sammy looks back the window, he can see Lengel is in his place, doing his job. “His Face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’d just 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.” This sentence shows that Sammy has discovered that the world can be a little bit hard that he cannot expect. He has learned that he is not able to negotiate each difficulty successfully because there are a lot of people just are like Lengel in the world. They may treat him harder than Lengel does. He also understands that sometimes being a follower might be a good decision. Sammy needs to learn how to handle with those people and play a real “game” in the hard world. Although Sammy achieves his freedom that he wants, he is not excited because he pays the price, which is losing his job and his expectation on girls. On the other hand, he learns a lesson is that reality is harsh. It can be ugly and cruel. Nobody is able