In the short story “A&P” by John Updike the protagonist, a nineteen year old named Sammy, works a dead-end job at a grocery store, which his parents arranged for him. Sammy’s attitude towards the job is expressed through extremely descriptive imagery of three young ladies and the customers who frequent his work place. His apathetic view on his employment area and society as a whole eventually build him up to resign from his job, and he only acts upon this urge after being grasped by the chains of love, and his own desperations. Sammy’s evolution during this coming-of-age experience satirizes the traditional young and naïve teenage mind through Sammy’s expressions of nonconformity, his place in society, and his perceived future.
Three girls …show more content…
However, as Sammy showcases through vivid descriptions of these girls his desire to aspire to their level of nonconformity, his place in society, or his class, severely impacts his final decision. …show more content…
He acts his age “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” by showing his resilience to authority and discipline in general. Had Sammy known that taking back his words, or even just not repeating them at all, would’ve easily been a far better choice for himself in the long run, but the influence of the girls caused him to go off the walls. The protagonist finally built up the courage that he recently gained to quit and after a few minutes it finally hit him “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” Witnessing his manager working his position, even though he was far too important to be working the register, hit Sammy like a brick, in the sense that he finally realized that just because a few good-looking young girls come walking through his store, doesn’t mean he needs to pack his bags and uproot from his position that his parents planted for him years ago. This depicts an extremely graphic image of the average teenager during the time, probably in the fifties, and how they were ingenuous in the art of success early on in life. Figuratively handed to him on a silver platter was the simplest way to fix all of his problems, and all he had to do was be patient
Three girls …show more content…
However, as Sammy showcases through vivid descriptions of these girls his desire to aspire to their level of nonconformity, his place in society, or his class, severely impacts his final decision. …show more content…
He acts his age “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” by showing his resilience to authority and discipline in general. Had Sammy known that taking back his words, or even just not repeating them at all, would’ve easily been a far better choice for himself in the long run, but the influence of the girls caused him to go off the walls. The protagonist finally built up the courage that he recently gained to quit and after a few minutes it finally hit him “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” Witnessing his manager working his position, even though he was far too important to be working the register, hit Sammy like a brick, in the sense that he finally realized that just because a few good-looking young girls come walking through his store, doesn’t mean he needs to pack his bags and uproot from his position that his parents planted for him years ago. This depicts an extremely graphic image of the average teenager during the time, probably in the fifties, and how they were ingenuous in the art of success early on in life. Figuratively handed to him on a silver platter was the simplest way to fix all of his problems, and all he had to do was be patient