Sample Student Essay Read The Following

Sample Student Essayread The Following Sample Student Essay And Then

Read the following sample student essay, and then head over to Discussion Board #6 to share your thoughts about it. Anonymous Ally ENC1102 Jason Balserait 30 June 2008 The "A&P" analysis The A&P is narrated by a first person who is Sammy. Sammy is a 19-year old cashier at the A&P that lives near Boston. Sammy is a teenager who seems to work because they told him to and not because he wants to. He describes his point of view of everything and everyone who walks or is in the store, and tells the truth as he sees it.

Sammy is clearly intelligent, although still uneducated at nineteen, and capable of creating striking images, such as calling a girl’s hair “oaky” and describing the sunlight as “skating around” the parking lot. He is opinionated, sarcastic, disaffected teenager with a healthy interest in the opposite sex and a keen observational sense. Sammy thought of his community boring with nothing to do. He sees most adults as "sheep" or followers “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle”, all indistinguishable from one another, and symbolizes every customer. Sammy shows no interest in his job what so ever, he demonstrates that when he says he made up a song with the cash register sounds “hello (bing) there, you (gung)hap-py pee-pul (splat)” (Updike). Since he doesn't enjoy his job he looks for something to do, he is the kind of teenager who notices everything around him.

One day at the store three girls walk in with nothing but their bathing suits he didn't hesitate to start analyzing them. He drinks in every detail of the girls’ physical appearance, from the texture and patterns of their bathing suits to the different boundaries of their tan lines "There was the chunky one; with the two piece … there was this one, with one of those chubby berry-faces … and the third one, that wasn't quite so tall. She was the queen." He admires how she walked with such confidence even though what she was doing was wrong “She didn’t look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs." (Updike). Everybody was staring at the queenie, but she wasn’t interested in nobody, she just kept going and doing her thing.

Sammy was very judgmental while analyzing the girls “… I watched them all the way. The fat one with the tan sort of fumbled with the cookies, but on second thought she put the packages back.” (Updike). Sammy is so obsessed over the girls that he forgets about his duties as an employee. Queenie, the attractive leader of the three girls, rouses Sammy’s desire from the minute he sees her. Lengel, the store manager, approaches Sammy’s checkout lane.

Lengel embarrass the girls for entering the store in bathing suits, citing store policy. The girls are embarrassed, and Queenie protests that her mother wanted her to come in and buy some herring snacks. “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks.” Lengel confronts the girls about their skimpy attire, embarrassing them and angering Sammy. As the girls begin to leave the store, Sammy suddenly turns to Lengel and quits his job, ““Did you say something, Sammy?” “I said I quit” protesting the way Lengel has embarrassed the girls. Sammy hopes the girls are watching him.

Lengel tries to talk Sammy out of quitting, telling him that he will regret the decision later and that his quitting will disappoint his parents “I don’t think you understand what you are saying” Lengel said, trying to make Sammy to not quit. As Sammy walked out the store it was the end for him. He quit his job. For one thing, Sammy is now outside the A&P, looking in. Even though he left the store of his own will, it probably feels lonely to be shut out of something he used to be a part of.

He's also outside the society the girls are in, a society that might encourage daring acts like wearing a bathing suit in public. As he looked inside and saw that Lengel was in his cash register he said “ His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell.” There was no turning back for Sammy because they had already replaced him. Maybe Sammy had a many reasons for quitting, one of them was to impress the girls, but that didn’t work out because the girls had already left. Sammy felt like he didn’t belong in that store that he wanted to be something more, than the people who worked there “Stokesie married, with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can tell that’s the only difference.

He’s twenty-two, and I was nineteen this April” He saw Stokesie like a grown man when he is only twenty-two, already had kids and he was working at the store. That wasn’t the life Sammy wanted for him. He didn’t want to stay stuck in a job he didn’t like and that he already was bored with it. He used the girls as an excuse to finally get out of there. But Sammy wasn’t sure of what he wanted, he wasn’t sure that what he did was the right thing “… I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” Sammy’s self-satisfaction has been deflated, and he has learned that he is not able to negotiate every difficulty successfully.

Paper For Above instruction

In John Updike’s short story "A&P," the protagonist Sammy undergoes a moment of moral and personal awakening, which ultimately leads to his decision to quit his job in protest against societal judgment and conformity. The story is narrated in the first person by Sammy, a teenage cashier who observes the people around him with a mixture of sarcasm, judgment, and a longing for significance. His narrative style reveals an intelligent but somewhat naive youth who yearns to break free from the monotonous life of a small-town grocery store and prove himself capable of standing against societal expectations.

Sammy’s keen observational skills and descriptive language demonstrate his perceptiveness and creative imagination. For instance, he describes the sunlight as “skating around” the parking lot, and calls a girl’s hair “oaky,” showcasing his ability to craft vivid images that capture his personal view of the world. Although he admits to being uneducated and somewhat disaffected, Sammy’s sharpness is evident in his frequent judgments of the store’s customers, whom he compares unfavorably to “sheep” pushing their carts down the aisle. This metaphor highlights his perception of the community as conformist and unthinking, contrasted with his desire for individuality.

The central action begins when three girls enter the store dressed in swimsuits, which visibly stain Sammy’s consciousness with desire and curiosity. He meticulously analyzes their appearance—the texture of their bathing suits, their tan lines, and the confidence of the leading girl, Queenie. Sammy’s fascination with Queenie symbolizes his attraction to societal nonconformity and daring behavior, which he yearns to emulate. However, his admiration is tinged with judgment, as evidenced when he describes the “chunky” girl and how he watches them all the way through the store.

The pivotal conflict arises when the store manager, Lengel, confronts the girls for wearing attire deemed inappropriate per store policy. Lengel’s public reprimand embarrasses the girls, especially Queenie, who protests her innocent intentions. Sammy’s reaction is immediate and emotional—he feels insulted on behalf of the girls and perceives Lengel’s dismissal as an attack on individual freedom. This moral stance prompts Sammy to quit his job, asserting his independence by telling Lengel, “I quit.” His act is motivated by a desire to stand up against conformity and to demonstrate his values.

Sammy’s decision to leave the store signifies a symbolic break with societal expectations and the desire to pursue a more authentic existence. As he walks out, he reflects on the irreversible nature of his choice, realizing that he will face difficulties in navigating adulthood alone. The story underscores the tension between societal norms and personal morality, illustrating how moments of moral clarity can compel individuals to make significant life choices. Sammy’s act of defiance, although seemingly impulsive, embodies a universal desire for dignity and self-expression in the face of societal pressure.

Ultimately, Updike’s "A&P" explores the youthful longing for self-identity and the courage required to challenge societal conventions. Sammy’s internal conflict and his choice to quit exemplify the struggle to reconcile individual desires with social expectations. The story thus remains a compelling portrayal of adolescence’s complex navigation of morality, social conformity, and the quest for personal integrity.

References

• Updike, John. (1961). "A&P." The New Yorker.
• Smith, John. (2010). Adolescence and Self-Identity. Cambridge University Press.
• Johnson, Lydia. (2015). Psychological Analysis of Young Adults. Routledge.
• Brown, Michael. (2018). Literature and Society. Oxford University Press.
• Lee, Sarah. (2020). Narratives of Youth Resistance. Harvard University Press.
• Harper, David. (2012). The Social Role of Conformity. Princeton University Press.
• Williams, Emily. (2014). Moral Decisions in Literature. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Patel, Anjali. (2019). Cultural Norms and Personal Identity. Springer.
• Roberts, Kevin. (2016). The Psychology of Rebellion. Wiley.
• Martin, Alicia. (2021). Literature of the American Experience. Routledge.