"A&P"

I believe that John Upike’s story is about a feminist protest. The girls that came into the store dressed in their bathing suits were not doing any harm. They were just dressed “inappropriately,” according to the manager of the A&P. I feel that if a group of guys came into the same store in their swimming trunks, without a shirt on, they would be treated differently. I don’t think the manager of the store wouldn’t have thought twice about acknowledging the fact that they were inappropriately dressed. The females that were dressed in their swimming suits also stood up for themselves when they were confronted. The fact that the manager confronted the females about their apparel was one of the factors that made Sammy want to quit. Sammy also wanted to quit because he was tired of dealing with costumers. The quote that supports this is “By the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag-she gave me a little snort in passing…” I also feel that Sammy was bored with his job. Sammy also quit because the manager had a talk with the girls about their appearance and he felt that it was unjust and not a big deal that they were in swimming suits. He was also trying to impress the girls by quitting. Sammy’s epiphany occurred at the end of the short story. When Updike states, “I looked around for my girls, but they’re gone of course.” Then later in that paragraph he also says “…I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” This gives me the feeling that Sammy finally realized that nothing is like the movies; meaning that just because he stood up for what he believed doesn’t mean that things will turn out great in the end.