The protagonist of the story is the narrator, Sammy. Sammy is a nineteen-year-old boy working the checkout line at an A&P store. When three girls come into the store wearing nothing but bathing suits and are chastised by the store manager, Sammy quits his job. He hopes to impress the girls because of his courageousness, but when they ignore him, he is then filled with an uneasy feeling that he has doomed his future. Sammy notices everything around him, and he takes in every detail of the customers' and the girls’ physical appearances. Sammy’s attraction to the girls based solely on their looks reveals an immaturity, going hand in hand with his dismissiveness of the A&P customers, seeing them as sheep and slaves. He is just as dismissive of his coworker Stokesie, who Sammy thinks is a drone. The irony of Sammy’s sense of superiority is that he realizes that, in the eyes Queenie and rich people in general, he seems just like the bum Stokesie and the uptight worker Lengel. He doesn't want the life he is currently living and his desire to set himself apart from the lower class compels him to quit his job. Him wanting to meet a pretty girl ended up as a desire to escape from the A&P store and his own boring life. He wants Queenie's world, with sophisticated parents, summer vacations, and the freedom to disregard the rules. This realization makes him see the abundance of opportunities beyond his limited life, and sets him free. The antagonist of the story is the leader of the three girls, who is nicknamed Queenie by Sammy. Queenie s stirs up the simple and calm workplace at the A&P store and makes Sammy act out and quit his job. She rouses Sammy’s desire from the minute he sees her, and when the store manager scolds her for wearing only a bathing suit, she defends herself by saying she needs to buy herring snacks for her mother. Her response suggests to Sammy a mature world very different from his own. This very different lifestyle that contrasts Sammy's life makes her the antagonist. The setting is in an A&P store near the beach. The time is near the 1950s and is in Boston. The main theme of the story is testing the boundaries of allowable behavior. There are many scenes that can be seen from many perspectives and can be seen as acceptable or not. Another secondary theme is the mixture of maturity and innocence. Sammy has a job, but it is only at a A&P store, which shows his maturity and innocence. Queenie is very confident when first walking into the A&P store, but when challenged by the manager, she's no longer a self-assured, and her response that she is buying something for her mother reveals that she has not yet quite reached adulthood. The combination of the characters brazenness and vulnerability shows the importance of balance as well. The climax of the story is when Sammy quits. It shows his superiority and maturity and sparks his newly found perspective that he can do better than working at an A&P store. When Sammy talks about the ridiculousness of being the manager, it foreshadows that working at A&P isn't very important, and he will leave there soon.
A&P Who's Who
The protagonist of the story is the narrator, Sammy. Sammy is a nineteen-year-old boy working the checkout line at an A&P store. When three girls come into the store wearing nothing but bathing suits and are chastised by the store manager, Sammy quits his job. He hopes to impress the girls because of his courageousness, but when they ignore him, he is then filled with an uneasy feeling that he has doomed his future. Sammy notices everything around him, and he takes in every detail of the customers' and the girls’ physical appearances. Sammy’s attraction to the girls based solely on their looks reveals an immaturity, going hand in hand with his dismissiveness of the A&P customers, seeing them as sheep and slaves. He is just as dismissive of his coworker Stokesie, who Sammy thinks is a drone. The irony of Sammy’s sense of superiority is that he realizes that, in the eyes Queenie and rich people in general, he seems just like the bum Stokesie and the uptight worker Lengel. He doesn't want the life he is currently living and his desire to set himself apart from the lower class compels him to quit his job. Him wanting to meet a pretty girl ended up as a desire to escape from the A&P store and his own boring life. He wants Queenie's world, with sophisticated parents, summer vacations, and the freedom to disregard the rules. This realization makes him see the abundance of opportunities beyond his limited life, and sets him free.
The antagonist of the story is the leader of the three girls, who is nicknamed Queenie by Sammy. Queenie s stirs up the simple and calm workplace at the A&P store and makes Sammy act out and quit his job. She rouses Sammy’s desire from the minute he sees her, and when the store manager scolds her for wearing only a bathing suit, she defends herself by saying she needs to buy herring snacks for her mother. Her response suggests to Sammy a mature world very different from his own. This very different lifestyle that contrasts Sammy's life makes her the antagonist.
The setting is in an A&P store near the beach. The time is near the 1950s and is in Boston.
The main theme of the story is testing the boundaries of allowable behavior. There are many scenes that can be seen from many perspectives and can be seen as acceptable or not. Another secondary theme is the mixture of maturity and innocence. Sammy has a job, but it is only at a A&P store, which shows his maturity and innocence. Queenie is very confident when first walking into the A&P store, but when challenged by the manager, she's no longer a self-assured, and her response that she is buying something for her mother reveals that she has not yet quite reached adulthood. The combination of the characters brazenness and vulnerability shows the importance of balance as well.
The climax of the story is when Sammy quits. It shows his superiority and maturity and sparks his newly found perspective that he can do better than working at an A&P store.
When Sammy talks about the ridiculousness of being the manager, it foreshadows that working at A&P isn't very important, and he will leave there soon.