John Updike Case

John Updike wrote many short stories throughout his lifetime, one of his many short stories was A&P. This may seem to some like a simple short story about a boy gawking over a bunch of attractive ladies, however there is much more to the story. The main character, Sammy, can actually be depicted as a very dynamic character. The fact that the entire story takes part in a grocery store also makes a huge difference. Meanwhile the point of view (1rst person; Sammy) offers the reader somewhat of a limited point of view. Furthermore, the girls' bathing suits also adds character to the story by providing the reader with a type of symbolism. As you can tell this story is indeed more than what it seems.

Sammy could be misconstrued as a raging hormonal teenager who checks out girls and quits in an attempt to be chivalrous. However, Sammy is quite a dynamic character and greatly changes throughout the story. He begins as a grocery store worker fantasizing over a few girls shopping in the store. Sammy realizes that he comes from a lower class than them, and imagines how his life could be living in their lives. As he gets caught up in his day dreams Sammy over-reacts to the girls getting kicked out and quits in a failing attempt to seem chivalrous. While, yes, Sammy is old fashioned and could have been seen as chivalrous, he basically quit his job to get the girls' attention and move into a higher way of living.

A&P's setting is strictly based inside of A&P, the store. This limits the characters to only that environment and cuts off outside influence throughout the entire story. Sammy looked at his life through this view and saw that he didn't want to end up like Stokesie (who made a life out of working at that store). With the entire story based within that store John Updike shows the reader how trapped Sammy feels confined within, what could be a lifetime in, that store.

The point of view of A&P is 1rst person (through Sammy's eyes). This allows the reader to see into, no more than, Sammy's thoughts and what he sees. The reader is capable of reading how Sammy views the girls, which could be a different opinion. While Sammy describes the girls' bathing suits intricately, "They were off her shoulders looped loose around the cool tops of her arms, and I guess as a result the suit had slipped a little on her, so all around the top of the cloth there was this shining rim."(p33). The manager