Teenage Life - Assignment Example

The narrator in A & P describes his teenage life, where he focused his interest on knowing finer details about the three girls. The description that the narrator offers describes events that would later influence his life. The teenage moments portray Sammy's character as a romantic. He described the features of the three girls, sculpturing their body posture, and taking his position in relation to the desires of his heart.  Another moment of foreshadowing is the description of the girls in bathing suits. The street women walk half-naked thereby influencing Sammy’s attitude towards women. The conditions that have kept the girls walking in the bathing suit are critical to Sammy’s decision because he decided to quit his job in order to please the girls.

Sammy‘s voice in the story gives an impression of his personality. This impression makes the reader make an informed opinion about the kind of life one would wish to lead. For instance, Sammy decided to quit his job and he remarked that he could not revisit his decision because he has already made a choice. This attribute helps the reader to build a strong will against the narrator’s personality. The style of narration employed in the story is first person. This style of narration enables the reader to identify the character traits of the narrator. For example, the narrator indicated that quitting his job subjected him to life difficulties. However, he asserted that he could not reverse the decision to pick the offer given to him. This illustration portrays the narrator as a principled person. The narrator's voice sculptured the features of the girls that show the narrator as a romantic person. The narrator described the features of the third girl as impressive. Another instance of his description that illustrates the narrator’s romantic attitude is the description he gives to the street women. He described the figure of the woman using her dress code.

Atwood’s (1) story seems to project death as a factor that each character in the story must face. At the end of the first part of the story, Atwood changes the mood of the story by inserting death as the final destination of the characters. The characters led a lavish lifestyle; going to beaches for vacation as well as playing together. In the plot, Atwood described instances where John was busy satisfying his ego at the expense of his wife. Atwood used a series of episodes to show the character traits of each character. For example, in each part of the story, the behaviors of the characters seem to appear. This plot appears to be comical because the repetition of the character's attributes not only emphasizes the theme in the story but also illustrates various activities that the common person likes to do in normal life. The theme of the story appears through repetitions in the plot where the character John exploits Mary sexually. The varied attributes of the characters in the story culminate in death.