[1]

JOHN UPDIKEStickin’ It to the Man

THE JIST OF A & P John Updike's best known, most anthologized and most frequently taught short story, "A & P," first appeared in The New Yorker July 22, 1961

The setting is a small town north of Boston around 1960.

Sammy is trying to clarify why he

has impulsively quit his job as a

cashier in the local A & P

supermarket. He needs a

sympathetic listener (or reader),

someone who will grasp the

meaning he is constructing for

himself as he puts his actions into

narrative order. Collapsing past

and present, Sammy tells how

three teenage girls, barefoot, in

bathing suits, came into the A & P

store. As they move through the

aisles, Sammy first checks them all out and selects the

prettiest and most confident of the three. He names her, to

himself, "Queenie"; and though he jokes with his fellow cashier

about her sexiness, he is upset by the butcher's lustful gaze as

the girls search for what they want to buy. Worse is his

manager's mood-breaking rebuke for their beach attire

as Queenie pays Sammy for her purchase. Outraged

that his manager, Lengel, has made "that pretty girl

blush" and wanting to show his cool disapproval,

Sammy quits his job on the spot. Though the girls

leave without recognizing their hero, and though his

manager tries to dissuade him from disappointing his

parents, Sammy feels "that once you begin a

gesture, it's fatal not to go through with it" (196). He

acts boldly and at cost to himself, but the girls are

nowhere to be found. In practical terms, Sammy's

action has gained him nothing and cost him

everything, but the story looks back nostalgically on

the event. Sammy does not see how he could have done

otherwise, though he finds himself at odds with the only

society he knows, sure that "the world will be hard to me,

hereafter" (196).

“Americans have been

conditioned to respect newness, whatever

it costs them”

[2]

SHEEP

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

n "A&P" Updike describes the store

akin to a 1950's "Leave it to Beaver"

kind

of setting.

This is a

setting in

which

everything

seems

ordinary, gray,

properly

appropriate

and thusly

dull. Sammy’s

description of

the florescent lights, the

stacked packages and the checkerboard green-

and-cream rubber-tile floor evidence its dreary

nature. Unremarkable customers graze the

aisles like sheep and the three girls Sammy sees

may be the most

entertainment he's

ever had in the

store. The drab

setting allows the

girls, especially the

alluring “queenie”

to stand out like a

rose among

weeds. Although

in bathing suits,

the girls verge on

the notion of public

nakedness in a place of such Victorian values.

Can you blame Sammy for his excited reaction?

SHEEP

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

A & P GROCERYCraving that Pineapple Juice?

J O H N U P D I K E

19

61

I

SHEEP

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

SHEEP

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

SHEEP

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

A &

P

Gr

oc

er

y

NOT A SHEEP

[3]

A & P

CHAR

ACTE

RSLENGEL

MANAGER OF THE LOCAL A & P, LENGEL IS A MAN WHO SPENDS MOST OF HIS DAYS BEHIND THE DOOR MARKED "MANAGER." ENTERING THE STORY NEAR THE END, HE REPRESENTS THE SYSTEM: MANAGEMENT, POLICY, DECENCY, AND THE WAY THINGS ARE. BUT HE IS NOT A ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER. HE HAS KNOWN SAMMY'S PARENTS FOR A LONG LIME, AND HE TELLS SAMMY THAT HE SHOULD, AT LEAST FOR HIS PARENTS' SAKE, NOT QUIT HIS JOB IN SUCH A DRAMATIC WAY. HE SEEMS CONCERNED FOR SAMMY BUT GENUINELY CARES ABOUT UPHOLDING STORE POLICY.

STOKESIE

FRIEND OF SAMMY, HE IS 22 YEARS OLD AND ALREADY MARRIED, WITH TWO KIDS. ALTHOUGH SEEMINGLY MUCH FURTHER ALONG IN LIFE THAN SAMMY, HE IS ONLY THREE YEARS OLDER. THE TWO ENJOY KEEPING ONE ANOTHER COMPANY AND EVEN JOKE ABOUT “QUEENIE”. HOWEVER, WHEN SAMMY ABRUPTLY QUITS AND BUCKS THE SYSTEM, STOKESIE IS UNABLE TO JOIN HIM. ALTHOUGH HE HIS BOUND BY ADULT COMMITMENTS, HE APPRECIATES SAMMY’S FREE SPIRITED TEENAGE ACTIONS.

QUEENIE

THE CONFIDENT AND SEXY LEADER OF THE THREE SWIMSUIT-CLAD GIRLS. SHE DEFIES THE MODEST ATMOSPHERE OF THE STORE AND TOWN, EVERYTHING ABOUT HER STANDS OUT BEAUTIFULLY. UPDIKE DESCRIBES HER AS BEING BEING PHYSICALLY ALLURING AS WELL AS CONFIDENTLY DEFIANT. HER PURCHASE INFERS THAT SHE IS AMONG THE UPPER CLASS.

[4]

1 9 6 1 J O H N U P D I K E

A & P QUESTIONSDE

SCRI

BE T

HE C

ONT

RAST

UP

DIKE

CRE

ATES

BET

WEE

N TH

E A&

P AN

D TH

E NE

ARBY

BE

ACH.

HO

W D

OES

THI

S CO

NTRA

ST D

EVEL

OP

THE

CENT

RAL

MEA

NING

OF

THE

STO

RY?

:

. WHAT DOES SAMMY'S

INIT IAL REACTION WHEN THE

GIRLS ENTER THE STORE

AND HIS DESCRIPTIONS OF

THE GIRLS AS THE

NARRATOR REVEAL ABOUT

HIMSELF? HOW IS THIS

SIGNIFICANT TO THE THEME

OF THE STORY?

DOES THE MANAGER OF THE

A&P, LENGEL, REPRESENT

SOMETHING MORE BROAD?

WHAT OPINION DOES UPDIKE

EXPRESS ABOUT THESE

KINDS OF PEOPLE THROUGH

HIS DEPICTION OF LENGEL?

DESCRIBE THE THEME OF

CLASS TENSION IN THE

STORY. HOW DOES THE

AUTHOR DEPICT THE

INTERACTION OF PEOPLE

FROM DIFFERENT CLASSES

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE

OF SAMMY'S DECISION TO

QUIT HIS JOB? IS HE

ATTEMPTING TO MAKE SOME

KIND OF STATEMENT?

Consider two of these