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'Checking Out' A&P - College Essays

'Checking Out' A&P

In John Updike's short story "A&P", the use of characterization and setting help to propel the reader into the somewhat conflict-ridden mind of Sammy, the protagonist. Where Sammy is and who he is surrounded by cause him to rebel against something with very little thought. Sammy lives in a quiet, aseptic town, surrounded by the usual small town people: nosy and close-minded. As Sammy senses himself falling into the cast of an older generation, his need to break away surfaces.
Anyone who has come to be an adolescent in a small town knows the innate need and the cultured want to break away, to breathe new air and to feel new wind. One has the stained sense that there's something great ...

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beach, some people in the town "haven't seen the ocean for twenty years" (482). This town, and this A&P, like the people in it, are boring and stagnant.
The characters in this A&P are the most persuasive external factor in Sammy's internal conflict. The reader arrives at the scene to find Sammy ringing up a "cash-register-watcher", whom he describes as being "a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows" (480). She nearly has a stroke when Sammy accidentally rings up her HiHo crackers twice. This woman is most likely a "sheep" (481), but quite an aggressive one. We don't really see her slimy, nosy side that epitomizes these creatures. The average "sheep" will continue shopping when a tornado comes through the store, but will most certainly rear its ugly head when three girls in bathing suits come strolling by. Why is this? Chances are because three girls in their bathing suits are a perfect ten on the gossip-meter. Oh, how those "sheep" could sit ...

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'Checking Out' A&P. (2006, July 15). Retrieved January 13, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Checking-Out-A-P/49182

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 7/15/2006 09:11:05 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 624
Pages: 3

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