Sammy In John Updike's A & P

“A&P” written by John Updike, provides details about the character, Sammy, that show his manifest changes throughout the story. He provides these details to the reader by using Sammy’s actions when he begins to describe the three young ladies that walk into the grocery store. He also shows how Sammy’s character changes from a distant and timid person to a courageous person who will stand up for what he thinks is right.

Updike provides details that describe Sammy as being a well-rounded character. At the beginning of the story, Sammy began as a stereotypical teenager that is exceedingly bashful and hormonal; he seems to believe he has most of everything understood. While Sammy is with a customer at the check-out slot, a group of girls strolls inside the store, and they catch Sammy’s eye. The first girl that caught Sammy’s eye is described as being a “chunky kid”, yet she has a “sweet broad soft-looking can” (19). Needless to say, he was staring at the girl for a decent amount of time to manage to retrieve these details about her body. As Sammy lustily gazes at the chunky girl from afar, he instantly forgets whether or not he rang up the …show more content…
He changes and grows up a little bit over the course of the story. He begins as a stereotypical timid and hormonal teenage boy that is distant from girls; however, he was lustful to the girls from a distance. He had the “know it all” kind of attitude that almost every teenage boy has. Then, once the story begins to turn itself around near the end, Sammy begins to turn into a courageous and brave teenage boy. Sammy realizes that he made the mistake of quitting his job to try to impress the three young ladies, but he had already quit and he cannot take what he said back. While he liked standing up for these ladies, he didn’t quite understand the fact that he just messed up his life for a group of girls that didn’t even pay any attention to what he

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