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A&P
It is very common for teenagers to wish to gain some freedom by earning a small income. This is often achieved through employment at fast-food chains, markets, restaurants, and shops. As a result of the amount of time consumed by these occupations, much of a teenager’s life tends to focus on the people and events that are central to these places of employment. Sammy, the main character in John Updike’s story “A&P,” is a superb representation of the teen employee.
Updike places his character in a typical setting and allows the readers to view the events of the story from the perspective of a teen. By doing this, he makes it simple for readers to relate with Sammy and his experiences. In reflection of experiences with a job at a bicycle shop, I find customers to be the most abhorrent and comparable aspect that both Sammy and I have encountered: after walking in the door, they seem to transform into cattle, and they have high hopes for an employee’s error.
A customer’s tendency to resemble an animal in a herd is the cause of a great deal of a teen employee’s agony. At most, it may initially seem that this could hardly irritate the sensibilities of an employee, but after observing hundreds and hundreds of these “sheep pushing their carts down the aisle[s]” (Updike 370), it becomes a characteristic that is reminiscent . . . read more.
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