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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 ...
- Themes
A summary of Themes in John Updike's A&P. SparkNotes Plus...
- Important Quotes Explained
Payment Summary. SparkNotes Plus . You'll be billed after...
- Motifs
Brand names appear throughout “A&P,” setting the story...
- Symbols
The bathing suits that the girls wear into the A&P are an...
- Narrative Point of View
A summary of Narrative Point of View in John Updike's...
- Character List
The manager of the A&P. Lengel is a by-the-books manager, as...
- A&P Historical Context
A summary of Historical Context: The Dawn of 1960s Youth...
- John Updike and A&P Background
John Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932....
- Themes
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 ...
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 ...
Complete summary of John Updike's A&P. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of A&P.
A&P A&P Summary. The narrator of "A&P" is checking groceries when he realizes that three girls in bathing suits have entered the store. First he notices the well-built girl with the shiny green plaid bikini. She's a little… distracting. He loses his grocery-checking rhythm and accidentally rings up a woman's crackers twice.
As Sammy goes about his job at the A&P as usual, he doesn't expect that his life is about to change. But from the moment the story begins, Sammy's path moves him relentlessly toward the climax of the story and of his young life. Setting By setting the story in an A&P during the 1950s, Updike ensured that readers would be familiar with his setting.
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Updike moved to New York, where he began writing with quick success, publishing short stories and poems, often in The New Yorker. Updike continued to publish prolifically over the next fifty years, producing 21 novels, 18 short story collections, 12 collections of poetry, 4 children's books, and 12 collections of non-fiction.
