A & P

In A & P, I believe the story is about Sammy’s “manly decisiveness”. Sammy clearly hates working for his manager and shows it when he quits his job on the spot. When his manager Lengel says, “You’ll feel this for the rest of your life” (Updike 224), Sammy shows that he has made his decision when he walks out on his manager anyway.
Sammy has several reasons to quit his job and they all stem from Lengels behavior. “Lengel is pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn’t miss that much. He comes over and says girls this isn’t the beach” (222). This shows how rude this manager is. He is the nitpicky guy that you would hate to work for. “He didn’t like my smiling” (222). Sammy was not allowed to have a sense of humor also. Lengel seems like the unhappy guy who wants to bring everyone else down with him.
Sammy’s epiphany is that he would be better off without this job. His boss is mean and he doesn’t have to stand behind him anymore. His epiphany occurs when Lengel is repeatedly whining about the girls coming in the store in swimsuits. Lengel says, “It’s our policy. He turns his back. That’s policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency” (223). Sammy thinks the girls coming in the store with their swim suits on was cool. I do not know of a teenage boy who would mind this.