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A&Pby John Updike (1961)In walks these three girls in. othing but bathing suits. I'm in the third check-out slot, with my back to the door, so I don't see them until. hey're over by the bread. The one that caught my eye first was the one in. he plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with ...
Summary. Analysis. Three girls in bathing suits walk into the local A&P grocery store as Sammy, the nineteen-year-old narrator, rings up the groceries for a woman in her fifties he describes as " a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows." Sammy is distracted by the sight of them – first seeing a "chunky" girl wearing a ...
Full Plot Summary. Three teenage girls, wearing only their bathing suits, walk into an A&P grocery store in a small New England town. Sammy, a young man working the checkout line, watches them closely. He appraises their looks and notes even minute details about the way they carry themselves. He also speculates about their personalities and ...
In the Fifties, this prosperity gave way, for the first time, to a distinct youth culture of rebellion and disregard for authority, documented in films (Rebel Without a Cause, 1955) and books (The Catcher in the Rye, 1951) that likely influenced Updike's "A&P," a story about conformity and questioning authority. Despite the prosperity of the postwar era, however, a significant minority of ...
- Point of View and Narration
- Symbolism
- Epiphany
The story is narrated by Sammy, a checkout clerk, in the first person. Hisvoice is casual and personal. His informal speech emphasizes his uniquecharacter and tendency to challenge authority. Slang terms, such as describinga dollar bill that had “just come from between the two smoothest scoops ofvanilla I had ever known,” paint him as a typical tee...
“A&P” is filled with symbolism. The HiHo crackers Sammy rings up serveas an exclamation. When he rings them up a second time, it's as if he's saying“Heigh-ho! Something unusual is happening!” and an older woman scolds him forit. The other shoppers are depicted as “sheep” mindlessly wandering up and downthe aisles, eventually filing into the chutes ...
An epiphany is a moment of sudden insight triggered by a seemingly ordinaryevent. For Sammy, what starts as a routine day leads to a profound realization:“I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This concludingstatement in “A&P” is the result of witnessing a minor incident where threegirls, dressed inappropriately, are scolded f...
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic.One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and Colson Whitehead), Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as ...
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A&P Summary. Three girls walk into the A&P in their bathing suits, as Sammy rings up the groceries for a woman in her fifties. Distracted by the sight of the first girl who catches his eye—a "chunky" girl in a green plaid bathing suit, with a nice tan—Sammy accidentally rings up a package of crackers twice, causing the woman to complain ...
