What Dictated Sammy's Desire to Leave Work in A & P by John Updike - Book Report/Review Example

A Critical Analysis of the Meaning of Sammy’s Decision to quit his Job in “A & P” In the story, “A & P” by John Updike, Sammy’s decision to quit his job has a twofold meaning. First, it is essentially a sign of his ignorant immaturity. He does not care much about the consequences of his action. Because of being a boy of 19, he does not know much about the stern reality of life. Even he does not entirely understand himself, and his behavior. Secondly, his quitting the job symbolically represents the end of his hormone-driven romantic view of the world. Immediately after the quitting, he begins to feel, the heat of reality, as he admits it: “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (). Indeed, it is the end of his hormone-driven romance and the beginning of a realm where he will continually learn about the reality of the world. In this realm, he will learn to orientate himself amid the adversaries through hardship and struggle. In the beginning of the story, Sammy appears to be smart and careful. But ironically, at the end of the story, he is revealed as a hormone-driven sex-pig. His language and style of narration show a great deal of his apparently sophisticated mind. His artful description makes him different from other characters in the story. He seems to be a great admirer of beauty. He names the most beautiful one of the three girls as “Quinnee”. But at the same time, he figuratively expresses his dislike for the fat one among the three girls. Amongst the girls in bathing suits, Sammy spots one who is a bit fat. He describes her as “ sweet broad soft looking can” and when she turns he notices love bundles and describes them as “those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun seems not to hit” (Updike 1026). Sammy describes the elderly woman as a “witch” (Updike 1027). It is because she had no eyebrows and had rouge on her cheek. This statement shows that the woman was ugly. This brings out a character that he views older women negatively. Not only did he view them as witches but also referred to them as ‘sheep’. Sometimes Sammy sarcastically describes his coworkers and other customers. He suffers from a sort of superiority complex. He behaves with a sort of superiority with other customers and coworkers. He often addresses them as “sheep” and “house-slaves”. Sammy calls them “house-slaves” because they spent most of their lives in their houses, as he says, “A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct” (Updike 1028). He is sarcastically dismissive to Stokesie, one of his co-workers in the store. But he cannot perceive that he is not different from his colleagues in Quinee’s eye. Though his description of the girls is his artful, the way he ogles at them necessarily reveals that he is immature. Indeed, his immaturity and ignorance remain hidden beneath her art of narration until he declares aloud his decision to quit the job with a view to drawing the girls’ attention. At this stage, the readers learn that Sammy needs the job very much. Now Sammy’s so-called smartness gets revealed in a new light. The readers, now, know that Sammy’s smartness is essentially a young boy’s endeavor to look smart and heroic. His admiration of beauty is his infatuation for opposite sex. Though he seems to be a careful narrator who misses nothing about the girls, his gaudy declaration of resigning reveals that he is not as careful and smart as he seems to be initially. He fails to notice that the girls’ obscene attires are not fit the environment of a grocery. Rather tidbits of Quinee’s style infuriate his strongly imaginative and youthful mind which longs for something glossy, beautiful and carefree. He takes the girls’ careless behavior as a sign of their carefree life. Sammy can easily imagine Quinee’s luxurious lifestyle. When Quinee says that she has come “to pick up a jar of herring snacks” (Updike 1028) at her mother’s permission, he conjures up an imaginary luxury of Quinee’s family, as he says: “All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room.” (Updike 1028) He imagines that Quinee’s family members and relative her parents and others in “ice-cream coats and bow ties” are “picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate” and drinking the “color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them” (Updike 1029). It is remarkable that the words and phrases which Sammy uses to describe Quinee’s lifestyle are highly figurative. This highly figurative diction and narration style clearly refers to Sammy’s longing for such a luxurious life. He does not understand that such luxury is beyond his reach. Though he seems to be smart, decisive and artful, he is immature romantically. He does not know stern realities of life. He is easily misguided by the illusion of a carefree life. His job at the grocery clearly tells us that he was not from a well off family. He longs for a life which is as luxurious as Quinee’s. His immaturity might provoke to think that if he impressed her, he could get the same luxury. Such immature perception subconsciously prompts him to confront his boss. He thinks that if he quits the job as a protest against the manager’s supposed-misbehave with the girls, his quitting will draw their attentions and be perceived as a heroic step. Ironically, his plan does not work, as he says, “The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero.” (Updike 1029) This was a typical way in which a young man would draw the attention of a girl he liked. It also gave him a false sense of belonging. On one hand, Sammy’s quitting the job refers to his ignorant immaturity. On the other hand, it represents the beginning of his realization of reality. Soon after he declares to quit the job, he learns that he has remained unnoticed. Even the girls do not bother to look back at him. Now, he knows that he is not different from his colleagues in Quinee’s eye, as he describes the situation, “The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero.” (Updike 1029) Still his perception about himself is not complete. He comes out of the store in search of his girls. But they are already gone. Now, he is jobless because he is a victim of his folly. At the time that Sammy makes his so-called "heroic" gesture, he realizes that he really doesn't completely understand why he quits. That's evident in his admission that Lengel is right in warning him against walking out:"'You'll feel this for the rest of your life,' Lengel says, and I know that's true, too,...”( Updike 1029). He is not completely at loss after quitting the job. It is because quitting the job has brought him the opportunity of learning himself and the reality around him. Works cited Updike, John. "A&P." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1989. 1026-1030. Read More