A & P (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Plot: Coming of age
- Time of Work: The 1950's
- Setting: A small coastal town near Boston
- Principal Characters: Sammy, Lengel, Three girls
- Genres: Short fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Love or romance, Ethics, Adventure, Heroes or heroism, Work or workers, Grocery trade, Clothing or dress
- Locales: Boston, MA
The Story
“A & P” is a short initiation story in which the young protagonist, in a gesture of empty heroism, quits his job at the supermarket because the manager has embarrassed three girls—and learns just “how hard the world was going to be to him hereafter.”
Most of the action in the story takes place in the short time Sammy stands at his cash register on a summer afternoon watching three girls from the nearby beach colony, dressed in “nothing but bathing suits,” wander the store in search of a jar of “Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream.” By...
[The entire page is 1386 words long]
