Sammy vs. Gender Inequality
In John Updike’s visual short story piece, A&P, Updike follows a seemingly young man working at a grocery store when three girls in skimpy bathing suits walk in. They’re minding their business, not paying attention to the narrator’s following eyes when the manager comes in and tells them off for their scandalous attire and they leave. The manager, Lengel, orders Sammy to fetch something for him who is still upset with the girls’ attire orders Sammy to ring up their order, but after doing so Sammy replies by quitting. but replies by quitting. Upset by the disrespect his manager handed the young women, he hands in his bow tie and apron and waves off the threats from his ex-manager of never being able to live up to anything disappointing his mom and dad. Sammy lives in what seems like ‘a man’s world’ in the 40s or 50s where the male population is still the head honchos. Updike wrote on the fact of acting on and standing up for someone once you have created some sort of respect for them in his story; in this case, gender inequality. Sammy’s simple act of quitting may not mean much to his male counterparts, but should be praised by his female peers; once he began gaining respect for them, Sammy didn’t appreciate the belittling of the young women because of only the clothing, or lack thereof. Instead of brushing it off and continuing to work he decided to stand up for what he believed in whether it is eradicating misogyny in his work place or looking brave to get the girls’ numbers.
In the beginning of the story The conflict starts out by introducing the three girls entering the grocery store “pushing their carts down the aisle – the girls walking against the usual traffic.”(1314) Sammy thinks it’s peculiar that these three young ladies are going against the wind. The narrator mentions that he feels that everyone in his town is in a way homogenized and unoriginal and the girls are refreshing to him. This is the beginning of him...