Who Is The Narrator In A & P By John Updike

In the story “A & P” the narrator Sammy works for the grocery store, where three girls walk in and immediately grab his attention. While praising one of the three girls, Sammy describes the rest of the customers as if they were animals or fictional characters. Sammy uses negative terms such as “witch”, “sheep” and even “houselsaves” to describe the customers that are in the grocery store. At the beginning of the story Sammy has an encounter with an old lady in which he accidently rings up one of her items twice. She then proceeds to yell at him for being careless, Sammy then thinks to himself “She give me a little snorting passing, if she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem” (Updike 155) referring to her as a witch. Sammy being a hormonal teenage boy also believes that all customers are bad. While Sammy is describing the girls, the three of them walk down an aisle where there are other shoppers. Sammy is so engrossed with one of them and holds them at a higher standard he dismisses the rest of the customers. Sammy states “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (Updike 156) referring to the other customers who passed the three girls. Sammy …show more content…
In this scenario he attacks the shoppers who perpetually go into the grocery day in and day out. Sammy as teenager has a negative attitude about working and having to tend to customers. He becomes appalled that the girls are asked to dress appropriate; he decides to quit and defend their honor. The customers that begin going to his register are described as “scared pigs in a chute” (Updike 159). As he turns back to his register he once more makes a remark before leaving the grocery store by stating “I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through” (Updike