Anything for Women

Anything for Women

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” the reader meets Sammy, a nineteen-year-old working as a cashier in a market type grocery store. This story takes the reader through a fateful event in Sammy’s life, when he quits his job all for the sake of women and their attentions. Sammy makes a foolish mistake when he quits his job, after defending the girls in this story from a condescending comment made by his boss, Lengel.

From the beginning and all throughout the story, it is apparent that Sammy is enthralled completely with these girls who walk into the store. He describes them at length, with every detail he can possibly spit out: “The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs” (Updike 1). “She had sort of oaky hair that the sun and salt had bleached, done up in a bun that was unraveling, and a kind of prim face” (1). Sammy’s detailed observations of these girls show his intense attention upon them, and his in depth descriptions, show just how much they captivate him.

In being so caught up in these girls, Sammy cannot think clearly while trying to perform his job duties. The reader can see this in his actions throughout the story: “I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not” (1). There he stands, so dumbfounded by the sight of the girls and the way they walk, he can’t remember what he’s doing. Later, as Sammy checks the girls through his line, his boss Lengel calls him back to reality: “’Sammy, have you rung up this purchase?’ I thought and said ‘No’ but it wasn’t about that I was thinking” (3). The girls in this story obviously hold tight to Sammy’s attention; he is unable to process a full order without zoning out or just plain forgetting what he’s doing.

Though his attentions are fastly fixed upon these girls, they pay absolutely no attention to Sammy when he quits his job, after defending them from Lengel’s passively insulting comments:

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. They

keep right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot

to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not that as raw material she was

so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow. (3)

Sammy quit his job in hopes of being noticed by the three girls, and the reader can safely know, he did it in vain. The girls pay no attention to his valiant rescue attempt.

Realizing the girls have not heard what he has said, and that he spouted out his own termination on a whim, Sammy knows his actions will adversely affect him. However