Student Question
How does the point of view in "A & P" by John Updike shape our interpretation?
Quick answer:
First person point of view allows us to see more than would have been possible from the perspective of a third party observer. The reader is able to see Sammy's monotony, his longing for something more, and his resignation that he will likely never have it.
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 store wearing bathing suits. When the manager of the store chastises them for dressing in that way and tells them to leave the store, the clerk, Sammy, quits. The story itself basically describes the type of minutiae that probably happens constantly in small towns.
By utilizing first person point of view, however, John Updike gives the story a level of depth that would have perhaps been otherwise unattainable. Sammy's somewhat jaded narrative reveals how deeply restless he is. He is full of contempt for all of the older women who come in the store and for his supervisor. We also see what a truly remarkable and jarring (in a good way) incident the girls' arrival...
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in the store really is. Sammy notes every detail of their faces and bodies. He does not do this in a lascivious way—they are not only attractive to him, they are also a welcome relief from his routine. The other people in the store, described as "house-slaves in pin-curlers," only briefly take shape, and this fact serves to illustrate how boring Sammy imagines them to be.
First person point of view also enables us to see that Sammy realizes that he has made a serious decision by quitting his job. While he can probably find another job not unlike the one he had, he tells the reader that his "stomach kind of fell as I realized how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." He seems to recognize that his sense of romanticism will continue to get him in trouble, and usually without any reward. The girls, who were clearly from a higher social class than him, show no sign that they appreciate his noble gesture. "Of course," he tells the reader, the girls were gone when he reached the parking lot. The use of the first person allows us to see more of Sammy than we would have otherwise been able to see, and this adds depth and meaning to the story.
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