Essays on A&P

A&P” by John Updike is a story about Sammy, a young man working in an A&P grocery store in the early 1960s. The story follows Sammy as he notices three girls enter the store wearing only their bathing suits, and how his reaction to them leads him to make a rash decision that will shape his future. The story starts with Sammy noticing the girls enter the store and immediately being mesmerized by their beauty. He begins to imagine himself as one of them, wishing he could be so daring and carefree like they are. His thoughts soon become consumed with these girls, who represent freedom and independence from his mundane life at the grocery store. As he watches them shop around for food, he can’t help but feel jealous of their free-spirited attitude towards life. Sammy’s admiration quickly turns into anger when he sees that none of the other customers or employees are paying any attention to these “beautiful creatures,” which enrages him even more because it shows how little respect people have for something beautiful or out of the ordinary. This leads him to confront Lengel, the manager of A&P, about why those girls should not be allowed in public wearing only their bathing suits – which ultimately costs Sammy his job when Lengel fires him on spot for speaking up against authority figures. At first glance this may seem like a trivial decision made by a naive teenager however upon closer examination we can see that there is much more going on beneath surface level. The act itself represents an internal struggle between conformity and individuality ” two opposing forces that often clash within us all throughout our lives – which eventually causes Sammy to take action instead of staying silent like everyone else has done before him. It also serves as commentary on society’s expectations during this time period while many people were still living traditional lifestyles (as shown through Lengel), others were beginning to embrace new freedoms (represented by the girls). Ultimately A reflects an important lesson about taking risks when standing up for what you believe in no matter how scared you might feel even if it means sacrificing something valuable along your journey such as acceptance from others or even money stability – both of which were things Sammy gave up after leaving his job behind without looking back at A”