A&P

This story has a lot to do with manly decisiveness. This is a young boy that is drawn to these three girls that come into the store. The girls being in just bathing suits didn’t help the situation. Boys are boys and always will be. How else would we expect this young boy to act? Maybe the boy acted the way he did to oppose his boss or because he didn’t really agree with him, but I think it was mostly to impress the girls.

“I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not” (Updike 220). This statement after Sammy first notices the girls shows that his minds was elsewhere then work. Lengal also does state that it is there policy, and I don’t think that he was rude. The same thing would happen today if you were to walk into a store with no shoes or shirt.

I believe Sammy being a young man had a lot to do with his decision to quit. He didn’t really put much thought into his decision and it was rather irrational. His attraction to the girls and the want to be noticed influenced his decision. He obviously wasn’t thinking about the repercussions from his mom and dad until the aftermath as these statements show; “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad,” he tells me (Updike 223). “It’s true I don’t” (Updike 223). “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” (Updike 223).

Sammy experiences an epiphany at the end of the story when he realizes he made a stupid decision “I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (Updike 223). The girls were already long gone and he had no prize.

A & P

The story”A& P”, is a contemporary story about a young man coming of age, by making a “manly decisiveness”. Sammy is a young man working as a checker at a grocery store. He has gotten this job because his parents now the manager through church.

As a young person you have dreams, of grandeur and living your life played out how you envision it. As I was reading this story, it was as if this was a foreshadowing of what was to come for Sammy, living out his life, working in the grocery store, and moving up the chain of command. The problem was that Sammy would have to conform to certain standards that he didn’t feel were fair.

When the girls entered the store, Sammy had been bored, and had just gotten chewed out by the “witch”, for making a mistake ringing up her order. He was a young man, who basically followed the rules, and watching these three young women, led by Queenie, make their own way through the store, breaking unspoken rules through out their journey up and down the aisles, going the wrong way, but felt like the right way to them.

When Lengel, the manager comes out, and tells the girls, “This isn’t the beach”, Sammy is embarrassed, by him and his actions. After Lengel, continues to give the girls a hard time, and tells them that the next time they come in with their shoulders should be covered. Sammy decides at that moment that he can’t stand by and let people be judged by Lengel anymore, and he decides to quit. This was the final straw for Sammy, to witness the girls embarrassment, when in Sammy’s eyes they did nothing wrong. He makes his decision, and sticks with it, even though Lengel is saying he will regret it one day, and will disappoint his family.

Kara Carpenter

The Yellow Wallpaper

The story The Yellow Wallpaper was very interesting to read but also somewhat confusing. I thought it was interesting how in the beginning of the story, the woman sounded almost normal, but in the end it was clear that she was not in her right mind. As the story progresses and you begin to notice how the narrator seems to change, you also notice how the writing changes as well. The narrator was upset about how the house sat alone for so long, she mentioned that she believed it may be haunted. She also did not like the room she was in. She would rather be downstairs closer to the outdoors. I believe her husband kept her upstairs to be as far away from others as possible, this probably made her mental condition worse. She also really did not like that wallpaper.

I think that with every entry she writes, the writing changes a little. She sounds a little crazier everytime. I think on page 373 is when the writing takes a big change though. The paragraphs begin to get very short and the punctuation doesn't always seem to make sense. Also, it is when her thoughts really give away her mental problems. The more she talks about what she thinks is going on with the wallpaper and the woman "creeping" the harder it is to understand the story. I believe that at the end of the story, the woman tears off all of the wallpaper and becomes that woman that she saw "creeping" so many times. The wallpaper was just a cover for what she was really doing the whole time.

A&P

I think that A&P was a well written story. I don't think that you would have girls walking in to any store with no shoes. I work in a grocery store for over five years and I have never seen anyone come into the store without shoes on. But I have seen many times girls come in with swimsuits on. I think it was pretty brave for Sammy to stand up to his boss like that. I also think that it wasn't the appropriate time for it. I think he could have waited for a time where maybe they could have had more time to talk. Although I do think Sammy has a good point in saying "You didn't have to embarrass them" (Updike 223). I don't think really affected the boss to think that he was wrong in the situation. But in the end, he lost his job and the girls didn't even notice him.

A&P

Out of the three suggested themes of the story, the view that “A&P” is a story about conformity seems to have a better fit. In the store, the average customer is described as “sheep” and “houseslaves in pin curlers” (Kirszner/Mandell pg 221). The customer’s are used to a certain atmosphere, a certain flow of shopping that the three girls have disturbed. The girls are simply dressed differently than expected, but causes such a commotion that “the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists…But there was no doubt, this jiggled them” (pg 221) and forces an employee to feel obligated to quit his job. Society wants the girls to confirm to their sense of decency, and Sammy wished to right the wrong that he felt was done to them. He did not foresee any alternate way of carrying out his sentiment other than to quit his job, which will most definitely disappoint his parents who may very well depend on his employment to sustain their way of life. Sammy quit his job because he felt convicted to do so: once you start something its best to see it through. He felt that the girls were not treated with the respect due to them, and quit as a show of nonconformity. He would not be like everyone else and just let that happen. He saw himself in Mr. Lengel’s position, and desired for more in life. His epiphany was at the end, when he realized that sometimes in life one can act impulsively and irrationally, especially when faced with a pretty face, and a woman’s reputation to protect.

A&P

A&P

The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator basically gave in to her disease and/or tiredness. All she wanted to do was help that woman in the wallpaper escape and by helping the woman, she thought she was helping herself escape. I don’t really know what her disease was or where her tiredness came from but I don’t she was crazy at first, but when she was confined to that room, she ended up linking herself to the woman in the wallpaper and became crazy.
The plot changes in a couple parts. On page 371, the 94th line states, “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper” (Gillman, 371). The woman doesn’t necessarily start to like the wallpaper but she has grown accustom to the patterns, then finding out later on she sees a woman behind bars on the wallpaper. Another plot change would be the part where she states, “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gillman, 378). The plot may change earlier, but I think this is where the woman truly shows a different side and reveals she has surrendered to her disease. She linked herself to the woman behind bars on the wallpaper; she, like the woman on the wallpaper, wanted to be free from her confinement. The narrator wanted to be free from the room, wallpaper, her tiredness or disease, and John.
The narrator is upset by the house because of the yellow wallpaper, the “yellow smell”, and the “immovable bed”. She is constantly reminded of the smell wherever she goes and at the end of the story, she is not able to move the bed to remove the wallpaper. Another thing I think upsets her are the “women” that constantly creep around during the daylight on the grounds and in other people’s windows.

A&P

When I read John Updike’s A&P, it struck me as being a feminist protest. First of all, the girls come into the A&P wearing swim suits. “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” (Chopin 220). “They didn’t even have shoes on” (220). Even if someone did this now days, they would get a funny look. This is the first thing that stood out to me as being a feminist protest. They are scantily clad in the super market. Secondly, they are walking the wrong direction. “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle-the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)-were pretty hilarious” (221). The girls are walking towards people, not behind them. It is as if they wanted people to see them by walking against the traffic. They were also showing that they were not afraid to go against the usual way of doing things.

Sammy quits because he is smitten with the girls and does not like how Lengal embarrasses them. “You didn’t have to embarrass them” (223). Also, he is hoping to impress the girls by quitting his job in protest to how they were treated. “…their unsuspecting hero” (223).

Sammy’s epiphany is happening when Lengel is talking with the girls. I can tell his mind is racing and he is thinking about what is going on. Everything clicks when he says the words, “I quit” (223). He realizes the full meaning of those two little words when he says, “…my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (224). The girls are nowhere in sight. He was hoping that they would realize what he had done for them, but they did not.

A & P

In John Updike’s story, “A & P,” there are a lot of different aspects brought out about woman and how they should be treated better, just in a more subtle way. I would have to say a lot of this story goes towards “feminist protest,” after all, Sammy did quit his job to stick up for those girls; or to impress them more or less. “You didn’t have to embarrass them,” (Updike 223) Sammy utters to his boss. Just by him saying that to a higher authority at his place of work really shows that he has the courage to stick up for these girls, and that is a huge protest in my eyes. As this story unfolds, there are quite a few things that struck me towards thinking Sammy may quit. I think it irritated him that his boss hides in the “Manager” office all day while everyone else is working. “He didn’t like me smiling—as I say he doesn’t miss much – but he concentrates on giving the girls that sad Sunday school superintendent stare” (Updike 222), this just shows me how cold- hearted this man is; one can’t even crack a smile in his presence. Lengel portrays a mean man in this story, especially when he continues to yell at these girls in front of customers; “After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy” (Updike 223), that is just indecent to yell in front of paying customers. One needs to show some respect, considering he is the role model and manager in this store. I don’t blame Sammy for quitting his job. I wouldn’t want to work for a man like that either. I believe that Sammy had an epiphany in this story. “Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through.” (Updike 224) I believe it was right there where Sammy realized that he could have potentially ended up in that same spot that Lengel was standing right then; working at the A & P, “checking sheep through” forever. He realized the world would be hard at this point, but it would be worth it.

A & P

The story A & P is about conformity because of the way that the character Sammy deals with the events that occur. When the three girls walk into the A & P store, Sammy is instantly fixated on them. It seems as though everyone is watching them, but the way that Sammy admires them for coming in the store with just their bathing suits on combined with his attraction towards the one he calls queenie, adds feeling and depth to Sammy’s character. As the girls move casually up and down the aisles, Sammy is constantly making more observations about them. The more observations he makes, the stronger his connection or admiration becomes. Sammy not only admires Queenie, but he is very intimidated by her, " Still with that prim look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled pink top. The jar went heavy in my hand"(Updike, 222). Sammy also notices the discomfort of the customers over the way the girls are dressed. This only adds to his admiration. When his manager comes in the store and notices the girls he gives them a hard time. Sammy views this as excessive and decides that it was so unfair that he must quit instead of conform to the managers and the customers close minded views. Sammy’s final epiphany occurs when he tells Lengel fiddle-de-doo. It seems as though he didn’t know what to say to Lengel and the saying that his grandmother used to say just fell out of his mouth. By the time it did he realizes that it was the perfect thing to say and he must quit.

A & P Essay

“A & P” by John Updike is a story about conformity. Sammy’s attitude and behavior was greatly influenced by the young girls that strutted through the grocery store in bathing suits. It becomes apparent that he is interested in them by the way he describes each of the girls and what they were wearing: “and what got me, the straps were down” (Updike 220). Sammy’s boss told the girls to come in the store next time with more clothes on. Of course, Sammy has to impress these astonishing ladies-- “The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop an watch me, their unsuspected hero” (Updike 223). Females do seem to have the mental power it takes to get inside boys’ heads, especially these ones, but in reality all they want is attention. That is exactly what they got by walking in a cold grocery store in nothing but practically their birthday suits. When “Queenie” and the other girls came to his register, Sammy got lost in his thoughts and let them get the best of him. He claimed her money just came from “the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known were there, and pass a half and a penny into her narrow pink palm, and nestle the herrings in a bag and twist its neck and hand it over, all the time thinking” (Updike 223). He had an epiphany and decided to quit his job – not because he really wanted to, but because he was in such a daze over these girls he wanted to impress. The downfall for Sammy is that really he can’t afford to quit his job and doesn’t even have a logical excuse for doing it. “It’s true. I don’t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” (Updike 223). This proves that Sammy is a weak character. Another reason why Sammy quit his job could just be because he wanted more excitement and was bored with it. It is obvious that he had nothing better to do other than drool over these girls. However, when he walked out of the store they were gone. All he saw was the real world and how hard it was going to be on him.

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find"

In Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” the author explores the idea of the confrontation of evil and the consequences of using unproven faith to face such a force. In this story we meet the character of the unnamed grandmother, who by all accounts is a proper Southern Christian woman with all of the traits inherent of a woman of her generation and upbringing. She is heavily judgmental of others, whether that judgment is justified or not, be it her family or the “cute little pickaninny” the family sees “standing in the door of a shack” (O’ Connor 355). The latter example also shows her innate sense of inequality as the language she used to describe the boy (O’ Connor 355) illustrates the racism bred into her culture which is something that is never questioned in her mind. She is immediately mistrustful of anyone but herself, and in her own words “’It isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust,’ she said. ‘And I don’t count nobody out of that, not nobody’” (O’ Connor 357). These three factors, her rushes to judgment, her inane sense of social inequality, and her suspicious nature all come from a false sense of superiority that stems from her religious and social piety, and would lead me to call her the religious “pretender” of this story.

True faith is actually shown by the man who has none, in the character of The Misfit. He shows this through a few examples of what he chooses to say to and how he reacts to the grandmother during their scene in the woods. The most meaningful example is when he replies to the woman about Jesus’ raising of the dead that “if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now” (O’ Connor 364). With this statement he shows that he believes in the prospect of true good and true evil. He believes that had he been witness to the redeeming act of resurrection by the hand of Jesus, even a man such as himself would be transformed from the monster he had become through the experiences of his life. His rage while making this statement, “hitting the ground with his fist” (O’ Connor 364), almost shows that he knows that there was a different path that he may have taken at some point in his life if there had been an experience that had moved him in a religious fashion. Also, he states that he refuses to pray for help.
“If you would pray,” the old lady said, “Jesus would help you.”
“That’s right,” The Misfit said.
“Well then, why don’t you pray?” she asked trembling with delight suddenly.
“I don’t want no help,” he said, “I’m doing all right by myself.” (O’Connor 363)
This to me is his twisted sense of morality, since he does not believe he will ever change, he refuses to practice sacrilege by praying for something he knows would be insincere. These characteristics of knowing right from wrong, even if on the incorrect side of the two, and truly knowing ones nature and refusing to compromise that for anything less than a moment of pure grace and true redemption is why I would consider The Misfit the true person of faith in this story.

Both of these characters receive a moment of religious grace in this story, both in the same moment, but for different reasons and each pays a unique price. The Misfit and the grandmother share a seemingly tender moment in which she reaches out to him saying “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!" (O" Connor 364). In this moment she sheds all of her pretenses and truly accepts him as a human being, reaching out to him emotionally and physically, trying to stop him from committing the act she knows is next to come. But unlike her self -serving appeals earlier in the story, this is a plea to save himself from the life he “was buried alive” in (O’ Connor 362). In her final moments the old woman came closer to the teachings she thought she had believed in than she had her entire life, and the price she paid for that was her and her family’s lives. The Misfit on the other hand, unprepared for this moment of revelation, instead of being transformed by the experience as he wished he would have been, lets instinct rule him. The price he pays is further sullying his soul at the expense of this family’s lives. Here we see a role reversal, where The Misfit becomes the religious pretender in that he refuses to see a transformative moment when it is upon him, unlike the grandmother.

Violence plays the role of a transitional medium in this case. The crash of the car leads to the meeting with The Misfit, which leads to the inevitable end. And this end leads to two characters reaching a higher understanding of their world which is summed up by The Misfit’s statement “She would have been a good woman…if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’ Connor 365). The implication is that only in a moment of violence and tragedy will people become aware of and accept the true value of their being.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

I think that the religious “pretender” is The Misfit. On page 363 the book says, “’If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’ ‘That’s right,’ The Misfit said. ‘Well then, why don’t you pray?’ she asked trembling with delight suddenly. ‘I don’t want no hep,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself.’” (O'Connor, 363) The book also says on page 363, “’Yes’m,’ The Misfit said as if he agreed. ‘Jesus thown everything off balance.” (363) This tells me that The Misfit believed that Jesus messed everything up and that he was better off on his own. I think that the old woman had true faith because she was constantly telling him to pray and she believed that The Misfit was really a good man on the inside. All he had to do was pray with her.
The Misfit does end up gaining a moment of religious grace near the end of the story. However, as the old woman touches him on the shoulder, The Misfit shoots her three times in the chest, thus erasing any idea that he might change. The book states on page 364, “’I wasn’t there so I can’t say He didn’t,’ The Misfit said. “I wisht I had of been there,’ he said, hitting the ground with his fist. ‘it ain’t right I wasn’t there because if I had of been there I would of known. Listen, lady,’ he said in a high voice, ‘if I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now.” His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘ Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’ She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” (364) The Misfit almost breaks down as if he hates what he has become and unfortunately when the grandmother realizes this, The Misfit’s violent instincts take over and she pays with her life.

A&P

In the story A&P by John Updike, Sammy tells the story of 3 girls and their bathing suits and himself trying to be a hero. Sammy like all other boys, young or old like to check out a girl when they walk in the door. Of course he was busy at the check out, when the three of them walked in. The older lady wasn't impressed at his screw up, "giving him hell." (220) I'm sure Sammy was pleased when she left so he could pay attention to the girls. He described them all from chubby, to tall, to the colors of their bathing suits, especially the one he calls "Quennie." She was the leader, the other two just kinda of followed behind and did what she did. Sammy was wondering though "if they had a mind or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar." (220) Quennie could feel his eyes on her but never looked, just held her head up high and looked straight forward, as a gesture of, I'm not interested. (221) When the store manager comes in, Lengel, he doesn't appear to be a very happy man. He tells the girls, "this isn't the beach." (222) As Quennie is trying to explain to the manager what her mother wanted, Sammy slips off into day dream of being at her house. I think the manager was fair at telling the girls to dress a little more appropriate for the store. He didn't kick them out and still let them pay for their herring. When the girls left, Sammy decided to quit and try to be a hero for the girls, they didn't even notice. Maybe he was happy he quit after all due to Lengel's attitued toward people. When the manager didn't like that Sammy smiled at the girls. I think Sammy realized that he didn't even like his job and that the girls where a way out.

The yellow Wallpaper

I believe that at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator succumbs to her disease. If I put myself in the shoes that she was wearing during the story, I would say that the oppression that she feeling around her from he husband, John, paved the way for this to happen. I don't want to label her as crazy, but I do want to say that she found her "out" from her illness and the feelings that she felt inside, and that just happened to be out of the wallpaper.

The plot for the Yellow Wallpaper first started to make it's shift on page 371 in the first sentence of the 94th sentence. The narrator says, " I'm getting really quite fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper, perhaps because of the wallpaper." This changes the story line in that the narrator is no longer seething with hatred at the wallpaper, she is growing accustomed to looking at it, and even starts to desire to look at it! Another plot shift in the story in on page 384, sentence 160, "The fact is i'm getting a little afraid of John," She turns her feelings around for John because of that yellow wallpaper. As she begins to imagine that John and Jennie are trying to steal her puzzle, she gets very suspicious and afraid of them!

In response to the third question on page 378, there are many things that upset the narrator about the house and ground and room. To kick things off, on thing that she didn't like about that grounds was that they had been unoccupied so long, as she says on page 366 in sentence 4, "Else, why should it be let so cheaply?And stood so long untenanted?" The greenhouses were long since broken, there were no people milling about. The room, of course had that yellow wallpaper! It had many other flaws to it as well. The bed was unkempt and looked like it had gone through a war and there floor was rippling, but the narrator felt as if she could handle this, just not that yellow wallpaper!