A&P

Unlike most stories, I feel that it is going to be pretty hard to describe me reaction to the story because I don't know how to react.  First of, I searched up the A&P to see if it was a real company, and surprise surprise, it is—its official name is The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company—!  But back to the story, wow, that was weird was my reaction to this story, for while the actual story itself is not so unrealistic, the language can sometimes seems strange, especially at the beginning where we have no context of where 'Sammy' the main character is.  Also, the idea of the story seems very strange, not the concept of it, where Sammy quits his job to show support for the three girls he helps, but the thoughts going through Sammy's head; he calls the people of the market "sheep" because of how they shuffle around (maybe?)  He calls one of the kids 'chunky with a nice can', and he says one of the girls is pretty but didn't make it because of her chin.  Who the heck thinks such weird thoughts?!?!?!?!  I know John Updike is famous for being a very descriptive writer but this is just ridiculous.  One thing I did love about this story though, was the end, this old-gruff-stern manager named Lengel embarrasses these girls when they quickly came into the store to get some fancy fish in sour cream; and our main man Sammy is not going to have it.  So he quits!!!!!!  What a chivalrous thing to do; if Sammy was a teenager or youngster (which the "y" on the end of his name suggests and the "m" before it), this would seem common, (they're hot-teenage-girls in bikinis ) but if he was an old guy with a monotonous life (which the story also suggests) this is a complete act of selflessness, and that may have been what astounded me in the end.  That was what made the story for me, I loved to see this guy take a stand against his boss who was bullying these girls, and although the never got to thank him, I think they would have had they not been so berated.  But while I liked the ending, I was also confused by it.  Did Sammy do the right thing?  He lost his  job for it, and that's why after reading it, (as said at the beginning)  I was super duper confused.  I liked the old man story better than this one, but this was still a great story, although I wish it could be less confusing at time.


My favorite passage was "His [Lengel] face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter."  I like this passage because after Lengel has been a big jerk to the girls and Sammy quits his jobs in order to "endorse" the girls, John Updike makes us feel something for this tired, middle-aged man, and I came away from this story not feeling like, "gee Lengel was a jerk," but rather, "I feel sorry for this guy, and maybe he had his own reasoning for acting like a jerk," which I felt was pretty cool, especially considering that he did that in a number of sentences.  I felt that the passage served the purpose of humanizing the 'villain' which is rarely done anymore in stories.