Michael McGinnis
Professor Naylor
Comp 2
29 February 2016
Of all the life in the animal kingdom, from grasshoppers, to honey bees, to lions, the species with the strangest mating ritual has to be human beings. The social intricacies of our relationships and hoops we must often jump to impress those to which we are attracted is a literal Dance of Life. In John Updike’s short story “A & P”, he uses characterization, setting, and point of view to convey how men often confuse sexual impulses for impulses of honor and chivalry.
The confounding effect of sexual impulses causes Sammy to mistake his goals as “honorable and chivalrous” while in reality the cause he is defending is as morally bankrupt. Sammy watches as his coworkers check out three girls in bathing suits. He feels as if he is above both his job and the morality of his coworkers. Yet when the choose his line for checkout he finds himself excited. When his manager chastises the three girls for their inappropriate clothing, Sammy acts…show more content… - maybe a point worth making. Once the girls had left, the purely carnal nature of his actions becomes clear to him as he returns from his castle to the grocery store in which he works. In the heat of seeking a mate, he completely threw out any rationality once his manager chastises the girls for their inappropriate clothing. His ‘morality and chivalry’ having possessed his being, he quits in a fit of rage in an attempt to show that he is a defender of the girl’s honor. His boss tells him that he is going to regret this decision, but Sammy will not have any of it, and he quits. As the girls leave the store he feels victorious and justified and walks out of the store to see his action through. However, the girls are gone, and he faces the foolishness of his actions and sees his true
