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TRANSCRIPT
[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