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Para 1
Sammy is a realistic hero because his actions do not lead to fame or glory. Sammy’s main character flaw is his age. He acts on impulse rather than decisive thinking. His response to the girls entering the story of an impulsive young man. John Updike starts the story with Sammy describing the young girls body style and their clothing. This is what draws Sammy’s attention because most of their customers put on more clothing in the car and they are “usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs (pg 16).” Sammy is enthralled by these young girls and their rebellious spirits. As the girls are coming up the isle, Sammy sees his boss coming in and immediately knows there will be a scene. His boss spots the girls and comes right over. Sammy’s feelings about his boss are made clear when he states that “Lengel's pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest (pg 17).” The tone is of dislike and maybe even distrust. So when his boss starts embarrassing the girls, his dislike boils over and he acts impulsively to try and get the girls attention. Sammy decides now is the time to quit his job in honor of these innocent girls, along with hoping that the girls would notice the valor in what he was doing.
Para 2
Sammy is a realistic hero because his actions do not lead to fame and glory. He stood up for the girls not only because of his infatuation with them but also because there was a difference of opinion between age genres. He stood up for his peers, even though he had hoped for some kind of recognition from the girls; he still made his feeling heard. After announcing his intentions of quitting Sammy comments on Lengel’s choice of words, “You didn’t have to embarrass them.” “They were embarrassing us” Lengel replies. Sammy’s response was “Fiddle-de-doo” (18).
From the moment the “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (14) walked into the A&P Sammy was captivated with them. He studied their bodies and actions intensely. He makes his own assumptions on how they differ in personality simply by their body movements and facial expressions as they lingered though the store. He referred to one of the girls as “Queenie” he explains, “She held her head so high her neck, coming up out of those white shoulders, looked kind of stretched but I didn’t mind” (15).
Para 3
Sammy is an everyday hero because his actions do not lead to fame and glory. When the hero (The protagonist) does not receive distinguished recognition for his heroic deed, it makes the character more realistic to the reader, since, in reality, most heroic deeds go unnoticed. After Sammy hands Queenie her change, Sammy quickly states that he quits his job. “The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero” (18). Sammy wants the girls to notice that he stood up for them, for Sammy believe that Lengel embarrassed the girls. Sammy does not want to be associated with Lengel and A&P’s “big business” policies. However, “they keep right on going into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the parking lot to their car” (18). The girls do not notice Sammy’s heroic deed.
It is further suggested that Sammy knew from the outset that he was not going to receive praise form the girls. “I looked around for my girls, but they were gone, of course” (18). By saying “of course,” Sammy knew that his heroic deed would go unnoticed and that he was not going to get the girls and received fame and glory. He is almost reminding us that most of our heroic acts will not be recognized by others, but we will know that we did something meaningful.
How does Lengel represent corporate America?
Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 2000. 14-19. Print.
Para 4
Sammy is a realistic hero because his actions do not lead to fame and glory. He does not benefit from trying to defend the girls. He does not win a prize or money, he gets nothing. Sammy defended the girls because of the way it made him feel, “remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside”(18). He also defended them because of the way his manager made them feel. We’ve all taken a stand for that friend who was getting picked on . Sammy is even more believable through his actions because he thinks like any other nineteen year old. “I uncrease the bill , tenderly as you imagine, it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known were there”(18). Now what nineteen year old wouldn’t be looking at those? Of course, much like we all feel happens in our real life endings, Sammy walks out of the A&P empty handed; no girls and out of a job.
Para 5
Sammy is an everyday hero because his actions do not lead to fame and glory. It all begins with his manager, Lengel, walking over to him and three girls in bikinis and telling them, “Girls, this isn’t the beach” (17), twice, like they didn’t comprehend the first time. Sammy notices Queenie blushing in embarrassment and debates briefly whether he should do something to stick up for them, and well, in their eyes, try to be a hero. The girls were “in a hurry to get out” (18), of A&P so Sammy quickly made the decision and said, “I quit” (18), in hopes that they heard him. Lengel gave him a second chance by asking, “Did you say something” (18) and Sammy repeated himself, “I said I quit” (18). He knows his parents are going to be aggravated for his reason of quitting when Lengel tells him that “you don’t want to do this to your Mon and Dad: (18), and Sammy also knows that he’ll “feel this for the rest of (his) life” (18). Sammy folded his apron, placed his bow tie down, “punched the No Sale tab” (18) and walks out. Granted, the young ladies were attractive and it was obvious Sammy would have loved to get with at least one of them because when he walk outside he “looked around for (his) girls, but they’re gone” (18).
What to focus on for revision