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Transcript

A & P by John Updike

Symbols Cont.

The Snacks:

  • Four giant cans of pineapple juice
  • Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream
  • Symbolize the parties and lifestyle the girls are coming from which is the complete opposite of Sammy's world

Symbols

Characters Continued

Strokesie:

  • 22 years old with two kids
  • Plans to make a living through A&P for the rest of his life
  • Represents what Sammy might end up like if he continues his average life

Bathing suits:

  • Rebellion and cry for attention
  • Freedom from the rules of everyday life
  • Defiance against authority
  • Sammy wants to feel that same freedom and that's why when he quits, he immediately removes his uniform

Characters:

"Queenie"

  • Teenage girl who enters A&P in a bathing suit
  • Described as the most attractive of the three girls
  • The "queen" of the group
  • She had "long, prima-donna legs" and wore a bathing suit with straps that rolled off her tanned shoulders

"Plaid"

  • Also a teenage girl who enters A&P in a bathing suit (a green, plaid bikini)
  • Described as pretty, but not nearly as attractive as "Queenie"
  • Sammy says she is, "a chunky kid, with a good tan"

"Big Tall"

  • Another teenage girl who enters A&P in a bathing suit
  • Described as, "a girl other girls think is very striking, but never quite makes it"

Works Cited

Fictional Elements

"John Updike Biography." Academy of Achievement. N.p., 11 Aug. 2009. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.

"Lzthandy." Lzthandy. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. <http://lzthandy.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/ap-by-john-updike/>.

Themes

Point of View

first person limited point of view

Sammy (the narrator) is a 19 year old, male store clerk at the local A&P.

Sammy only sees what he wants to see. As a young male he immediately rates the three girls on appearance and hierarchy in their circle. He refers to the adults around him as mere sheep while he views the girls as daring and bold. In a sense he admires the girls and because of this decides to change his point of view from regular Sammy, bored of his life, to a dramatic hero for his girls.

Sammy:

  • 19 year old boy who works as a checkout clerk at the A&P store
  • Narrator of the story
  • Ends up quitting his job at the A&P store in search for something greater

Lengel:

  • Uptight, stiff manager of the A&P store
  • Ends up kicking the teenage girls out

Stokesie:

  • Also an A&P check out clerk
  • Married with two kids

• Appearance: This story is about three girls who walk into an A&P grocery store on a Thursday afternoon, wearing only their bathing suits. The reaction they get from the main character, a cashier, and everyone else in the store consumes the story.

• Power: Lengel, the manager, feels that he needed to treat the girls this way in order to maintain his position of power in the community/store. If he didn't say anything, he would be allowing their behavior and opening the door to more of the same. Sammy and the girls seem to lose something from taking a stand against the power that Lengel represents.

Setting

A&P is the name of the grocery store where the main character Sammy works as a cashier. The A&P grocery store chain was one of the pioneers in this industry, paving the way for the superstores we see today. This particular A&P is located in a little town north of Boston and is about 5 miles away from the beach. We assume that the story takes place in the 1960s because that’s when the A&P chain was popular. In this time it was custom for women to wear dresses, hats, and gloves most of the time when they were in public. The youth was trying to rebel and change the conservative ways of the 50s.

Themes Cont.

Story

• Gender: Updike has Sammy quit his job to show the girls in bathing suits that he respects their right to dress the way they like and still be treated with respect. By standing up for their right to wear bathing suits in public, they inspire Sammy to his act. The story suggests that men and women can work together to create more freedom for both genders.

• Class: Sammy is a working-class young man. By contrast, Queenie, the name he gives to the leader of the bathing-suit trio, is a rich girl in the upper class. Lengel, the manager, is somewhere in between. He describes the rest of the people in the store as “sheep,” saying that they are in the middle class, having no real importance. The story is driven by the dynamics among these various classes.

John Updike

Sammy, the A&P's checkout clerk notices the three girls that walk into the store. While they enter he not only focuses on their looks, but speculates about their personalities and their motivation for walking into the store dressed the way they are. He becomes mesmerized by the leader of the group to whom he refers to as "Queenie." Stokesie, Sammy's co-worker, jokes alongside him about the girls but Sammy realizes and feels a sudden contrast between him and his married co worker, leaving him at a place of feeling like such a future is beneath himself. The girls are confronted by Lengel, the store manager, who recites the store policies and chastises the girls for the way they are dressed and they are then asked to leave because of their inappropriate attire. While Queenie protests this request to leave the store with a story of how her mom wanted her to go and buy herring snacks, Sammy is busy fantasizing about how much greater her life is than his own average life, by giving an account for what they would both like at their own personally thrown parties. Queenie and her friends leave the A&P embarrassed. Sammy longs for the freedom those girls have and wants to lead a life that is above average. Sammy then feels the need to stick up for those girls and quits his job hoping they will notice. Even though Lengel tries to convince him that it is not a smart idea to quit because his parents will not be happy and that he will regret it, he still goes about quitting. After he leaves the A&P he realizes that the girls are long gone and doesn't know where to go from there. He realizes that anything good is not in the near future.

* Born on March 18, 1932.

* Born in Shillington, Pennsylvania

* His home town serves as a setting for many of his stories.

*Updike excelled in his high school years

* Attended Harvard

*Married fellow class mate, Mary Pennington

* Went on to study at Oxford's Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts

*Had three children

*Won the National Book Award for his book, Centaur as well as many others.

*Passed away at age 76, in 2003.

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