Literary Analysis Of A & P By John Updike

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Zachary Morales
Professor Buriel
English 102
17 September 2014
A&P
“We waste this life dreaming of another.” Aphorist and philosopher Marty Rubin made his thoughts clear through this quote, that dissatisfaction with one’s life inflicts worrying about the present and yearning for a better future, losing touch with reality and not being able to appreciate everything that’s going on around you as a consequence. In A&P by John Updike, we follow a portion of a day in the life of the protagonist, Sammy, who makes the hasty realization that he is unhappy with his life, and acts on it. Through Updike’s use of the key literary elements, character and plot, the reader gains a greater insight into the story and how it unfolds, and how, in the heat of …show more content…
In the story A&P by John Updike, the protagonist Sammy is a young man of about 19 years of age, who had implicitly been working at the A&P grocery store for quite some time, and most likely had gotten the job through his parents who knew the manager very well. The manager of the A&P, Mr. Lengel, is a stern and domineering character who follows a strict no nonsense policy. It is not so much that he is contemptibly obnoxious towards Sammy, but that he takes immense pride in operating the inherently efficient A&P, and wishes to bestow this same mindset upon his employees. At the start of the story, 3 girls in bathing suits walk in while Sammy is working the front register, but they do not catch his attention until they are by the bread aisle. As Sammy’s eyes follow the girls, he describes them in sort of a doggish manner, simply identifying them individually as “chunky” (Updike) and “Queenie”(). It is also important to note that the store is located just five miles away from the beach, so it is fairly common for people to go inside wearing sandals, shirts, and board shorts, but these girls went in-in their bikinis and no
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