A&P

In John Updike's short story "A&P," there is an external conflict and an internal conflict. Sammy, the narrator of the story, is merely an observer to the external conflict. This conflict...

Sammy refers to the regular customers in the A&P as sheep because to him, they are like a herd of sheep. They are timid and do what they are told. They flock, to his mind, into one...

In "A&P," Sammy quits his job as a romantic gesture in an attempt to gain Queenie's attention and admiration. Sammy hopes that Queenie will take notice of his gesture and possibly entertain the...

John Updike uses many literary devices in the short story "A&P." First, Updike uses diction to develop the character of Sammy. The story is told from his point of view, and Updike draws us into...

Queenie is a symbol of Sam's desire for a better life. When she and her two girlfriends walk into his A&P in bathing suits to buy herrings, he is impressed with the confident way she holds her...

John Updike's short story "A & P" is set in a beach town. Yet, Sammy makes certain to note that the beach is five miles from the A & P store, and the store is "in the middle of town." The...

If understand a "round" or "dynamic" character to be one who undergoes some sort of change over the course of a story (usually in response to a conflict he encounters), then Sammy from "A & P"...

Although I agree with the previous answer that the internal conflict is significant in "A & P," I disagree with the characterization of Updike's portrayal of Sammy. Yes, as the story concludes,...

With climax being the point in a plot that creates the greates intensity, suspense, or interest, this point in John Updike's "A&P" is the action during which the conflict is resolved, or an...

This short story definitely contains solid examples of symbolism in it. The clothing worn by characters is a good place to start. For the most part, I would assume that the standard clothing worn...

The narrator's use of language is that of a teenage boy. Sammy is a typical teenage boy in many ways. He is interested in girls and is bored with his job in a grocery store. The sentence...

In "A&P," the mood shifts: it feels light, apprehensive, aroused, nervous, triumphant, and finally extremely apprehensive. Initially, Sammy's mood is relatively light. He at work and the day is...

Here are several literary elements in "A & P" in no particular order: We have a theme, in this case often described as a "coming of age" story. The main character, Sammy, evolves from a rather...

Anyone who shops in supermarkets (which includes practically everyone) must often get the impression that the cashiers have very little regard for them and consider them just faceless figures to be...

This is an interesting query because Sammy is very much a part of the supermarket society in question; however, he does not consider himself a part of it. Sammy very much has an "us versus them"...

In the setting of Updike's story, the late 1950s, the A & P grocery stores were THE grocery store of small town USA. The name A & P came to be synonymous with "grocery store" in the way...

Updike's word choice in his short story "A & P" suggests a cynical and critical view of a consumer society in which people have been conditioned to conform in various ways. From the beginning,...

Sammy describes each of the three girls in turn. His description of the first girl reads as follows: She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two...

An epiphany is a sudden revelation. The Greek word means something like "showing forth," and the term is often used in a religious context, to mean a vision. In "A&P," one might say that Sammy...

In "A&P" by John Updike, Sammy can be described as both narcissistic and hypocritical. His attitude towards others in the store is negative - and in the case of the three young girls, rather...

A good thesis for Sammy's epiphany in Updike's story should be a statement of how his life is affected by his decision to quit his job. When the teenaged Sammy acts impulsively in what he feels is...

Yes, you are on the right track in your thinking about these characters in the short story "A&P" by Updike. Even though Sammy doesn't seem too complicated at first and unlikely to change, he...

On the surface of it, "A&P" describes a fairly innocuous, harmless event. A bored check-out clerk at the local A&P store has the monotony of his day broken by three girls who walk into the...

One could argue that Sammy is not a hero in John Updike's celebrated short story "A&P." In the story, Sammy is the protagonist and narrator, who works at the local A&P and attempts to...

One of the themes that emerges in "A&P" is that actions often have unintended consequences. Queenie and her friends casually enter the grocery store "in nothing but bathing suits." This...

One theme in "A&P" is the struggle for gender equality. Queenie and her friends display at least a mild form of protest by entering a grocery store and disobeying rules about "modest" dress...

A great many of the perceptions one has regarding a piece of literature or art are unique to each individual based on personal opinion and experience. My perception of the sadness the family feels...

In order to understand the issue of sexism in John Updike's "A&P" you must look deeper into Sammy's descriptions of the female characters as well as the actions of every other male character....

A comic story trimmed with both satire and sentiment, John Updike's "A&P," with the title of a long-time grocery chain that catered to middle America, depicts the rebellion of a young worker...

One of the several themes Updike explores throughout the short story "A&P" concerns individualism. The teenage store clerk, Sammy, asserts his individualism by quitting his job after his...

Sammy acts in haste in the beginning of the story, quiting his job to prove a point. He is opposed to the way the manager treated the girls who came into the store wearing bathing suits. He wants...

Yes, it probably will be hard for Sammy. He has reached a point of maturity from which there is no turning back. His world inside the supermarket was dull but safe. He has made a decision that...

Sammy, the narrator of Updike's "A&P" is not untypical for a nineteen-year-old, for he is both cynical and romantic. He notes that A couple customers that had been heading for my slot begin...

Updike succeeds in drawing Sammy as a rounded character, partly because of his decision to tell the story in Sammy's voice. This immediately forces the reader to engage with Sammy and to sympathize...

Since the story is told from Sammy's point of view, the humor is also expressed in his thoughts and by his words. His easy, conversational, teenaged vocabulary allows him to express things...

With all respect to the previous two editors, perhaps one can say that "A & P" has no real "message," but is rather an insightful sketch of teenage attitudes and behaviors. The girls seem...

The idea of a flashback usually depends on a story being decisively "set" in, or told from the perspective of, a certain point in time. What is interesting about "A&P"is that the tense of the...

Like the post #7 mentioned, I think Lengel narrating the story in his point of view will be quite interesting. Lengel, unlike Sammy in the story, is a fully grown adult who needs to take the...

Sammy is trying to figure out how a girl's mind works. When these three girls come into the store improperly dressed, or undressed, he is stunned with joy watching them walk around the store. His...

Sammy's decision to quit in the middle of his shift at the A&P is not necessarily driven by a single factor. It is important to consider when the story was written. Social mores and...

The climax of John Updike's short story, "A & P", comes when Sammy utters the words "I quit" to his store manager, Mr. Lengel. The beginning of the climax (and completion of the rising action)...

In a story's exposition, we as readers get our bearings about the central elements of this particular narrative. We are introduced to at least some of the important characters, begin to get a feel...

Sammy certainly seems to think of himself as more aware than the majority of the customers in the A&P, as he refers to many of them as "sheep," and he is especially interested in the girl he...

I'm not sure that this story is a true allegory. Although it contains allegorical elements like symbolism, the message at the end of the story is not posed as a message we should learn from, but a...

The two primary themes of John Updike's short story "A & P" are those of consequences of choice and individualism. Sammy's teenage lust for the underdressed girls who patronize the A & P...

On a hot summer afternoon, three girls walk into the local A&P store wearing nothing but their bathing suits and Sammy, the young cashier, is enchanted by their attractive leader, who he refers...

In the short story by John Updike, entitled, "A&P," the falling action occurs after Sammy (the protagonist of the story) stands up for the girls who enter the grocery store where he works and...

Sammy's epiphany occurs as he is walking out the door after quitting in protest over how Lengel treats Queenie and her friends. He thinks he is doing something brave by standing up for them....

We see Queenie only through the eyes of the narrator, a nineteen-year-old boy named Sammy who works as a cashier at the A&P. We never, for example, learn the real name of this self-confident...

A "stock character" is... ...a character in literature...requiring no development by the writer. The stock character is also described as: A character type that appears repeatedly in a...