A & P

In reading the short story "A & P", there are many themes going on within the context. The one that I have chosen to write about is "manly decisiveness". There are many reasons why this story is about manly decisiveness. Some examples of that are first of all the way the way that both Stokesie and Sammy look at the 3 girls and keep watching them throughout the entire story. Their very thoughts are constantly on the girls which causes them to avoid their duties within the story and are distracted because of them. Their manly decision is to pay attention to the girls rather than doing their work. This is shown by the way that Sammy describes each girl in detail, the way that he feels and the way that he keeps tabs on them throughout the entire story. They kept going in and out of the aisles and Sammy kept waiting for them to re-appear. The other big decison on Sammy's part and the basis of the whole story was when he decided to defend the girls against Mr. Lengel, the manager. He could've just kept quiet and maybe even agreed with Mr. Lengel but instead he chose and decided to speak up against Mr. Lengel and then even quit his job over it, knowing htat as stated in the very last sentence that "I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter." This decision was probably the very beginning of him going from boyhood to manhood, knowing that there will be choices as a man he has to make throughout the rest of his life and this was just the start.
Some of the factors that caused Sammy to quit, in my opinion, were first of all he didn't want to end up like his co-worker, Stokesie and be stuck in that type of job, conforming to the rest of what was expected of him for the rest of his life. He also wanted to make an impression on the girls, which in the end, was probably not even known by the girls or reacted to by the girls. I think he also quit because even though he was still young, he knew then that he needed to pull out of this and make some decisions on his own, allowing him to make mistakes and grow from them.
Sammy's epiphany is realizing that he needs to stick up not only for those girls but for himself and society in general from people like Mr. Lengel who wants everybody to mold to his ideal of decency. When Mr. Lengel states that it is our policy to have women's shoulders covered and stating it was "our policy" when it actually was not even the store policy but rather Mr. Lengel's own personal policy was when Sammy realized that he needed to get out of that atmosphere before he was trapped by Mr. Lengel's and society's labels. This is shown to me when Mr. Lengel stated that it was our policy and turned his back. Sammy states "Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency."
There were many very interesting themes within this story and the decision of Sammy to be a man was one of them. Sammy chose to leave boyhood and start being a man. I would love to read a story written with this same character but a longer version showing what happened next. Perhaps he meets the girls again, becomes friends with them. Perhaps he moves out of his house and away from his mother who seems to be "babying" him a bit too much (as shown when it states she ironed his shirt). Perhaps he and Queenie get married, he gets a good paying advancing job and they have children and live happily ever after.