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The bathing suits that the girls wear into the A&P are an emblem of the girls’ casual disregard of the social rules of the small town. They also represent the girls’ deliberate provocation, an attempt to attract the eye of every man they encounter. Sammy is initially drawn to the girls simply because they are scantily clad, young, and ...
- Motifs
Brand names appear throughout “A&P,” setting the story...
- Themes
The girls have a profound transformative effect on the men...
- John Updike and “A&P” Background
“A&P,” published in 1961 and appearing in the 1962...
- Character List
The manager of the A&P. Lengel is a by-the-books manager, as...
- Important Quotes Explained
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- Full Plot Summary
Sammy is particularly interested in the most attractive...
- Motifs
Herring Snacks. When Sammy hears that Queenie is purchasing the Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream for her mother, he immediately imagines the kind of gathering at which these snacks might be served and contrasts… read analysis of Herring Snacks. Cao, Diana. "A&P Symbols." LitCharts.
A&P 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 ...
- The Power of Desire
- The Mystery of Other Minds
- Conformity and Rebellion
From the moment the girls walk into the A&P, they attract the gaze of every man in the store, which demonstrates the power their sexuality gives them over the opposite sex. Although they make a point of acting nonchalant (Queenie more successfully than the other two), the girls are well aware of the eyes tracking their every move. As long as the gi...
Throughout the story, Sammy exhibits prowess in both observing others and gleaning insights from those observations, but the girls suggest to him the true mystery of other minds. When a customer reprimands Sammy for a mistake, Sammy characterizes the woman as a witch straight out of Salem and thinks, “I know it made her day to trip me up.” For Samm...
One of the things Sammy comes to understand during the course of “A&P” is how close he is to being assimilated into the corporate structure represented by the A&P. At the beginning of the story, Sammy is quite clear that he is unlike the “sheep” and “houseslaves” milling about the aisles of the store. Sammy is equally confident that he is neither a...
M. Gilbert Porter called the titular A&P in Updike's story "the common denominator of middle-class suburbia, an appropriate symbol for [the] mass ethic of a consumer-conditioned society". According to Porter, when the main character chooses to rebel against the A&P he also rebels against this consumer-conditioned society, and in so doing he "has chosen to live honestly and meaningfully". [ 6 ]
Sep 6, 2023 · A&P Analysis. “A&P” is essentially a coming-of-age story in which Sammy tries to be a hero, only to realize that heroes don’t get very far in the modern world. Sammy’s narrative voice is ...
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Nov 21, 2023 · ''A&P'' is a short story by John Updike first published in 1961. The story is narrated by Sammy, a nineteen-year-old boy working as a cashier at an A&P, a small grocery store.He is the protagonist ...
