"A & P" Journal 2

This story is about a nineteen year old boy named Sammy who works at a grocery store. He is working at the cash register watching the peole shuffle around getting everything on their shopping lists. He calls these people sheep, as they all act the same. Not really noticing the surroundings about them, just making sure they do not miss a thing on their grocery list. John Updike writes, "The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle, " describing what Sammy saw these shoppers as. He is ringing up an older woman's groceries, who is watching him intently, as three girls in bathing suits walk in. He stares, making a mistake on the register while doing so. The woman gives him lots of grief, and he is unsatisfied thinking she has been doing it for years. "She's one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I know it made her day to trip me up," wrote John Updike as Sammy describing the testy woman. Sammy is mesmerized by the blonde haired girl in the bathing suit. He called her the Queen. The girls picked up a can of Herring snacks. While Sammy is ringing them up his boss Lengel comes over and tells the girls, "Girls, this isn' the beach." Sammy begins to get irritated and the girls argue a little. As the girls are walking out Sammy proceeds to tell Lengel that he quits. Sammy takes off his apron and tie and walks out the door. Sammy did not see the girls anywhere when he walked outside. When he looked back inside Lengel was at his register ringing peoples groceries up. I think that Sammy's reason for quitting was alot based on how Lengel treated the girls. I also believe that it was kind of a spur of the moment thing that Sammy did by quitting. But, I think that there was more to it. Perhaps he wanted to feel powerful in quitting his job, not really wanting to go through with it but it was to hard to back out of. I think that this is a vey realistic situation as still these days if you were to walk into a grocery store with a swimsuit on, someone is likely to say something to you. I think that the way that Sammy quit in the end was unexpected, and that you can not live your life making rashional decisions like quitting your job when there is really no incentive or reasoning at all.