Shavonne Davidson
ENG 1123 8B
22 Sept. 2013
Essay 1
A&P
“In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I’m in the third check out slot with my back to the door, so I don’t see them until they are over by the bread (234).” A&P is a story that has many details. The author introduces all of the characters well with personal details that make the person feel as if they were there in the setting. The main character Sammy analyzed everything from the setting, to the customers and co-workers, to the conflicts in the story. The setting was on a Thursday during the summer in Massachusetts. “Our town is five miles from a beach with a big summer colony out on the point, but we’re right in the middle of town (236).” This was a town where there was only one store and a couple more buildings in the town. The locals in the small town Sammy called them “the sheep” did not recognized anything that was different. The A& P was described as a normal grocery store with the fluorescent lights and the checkerboard green-and–cream rubber tile-floor. The other characters that were placed in this story were the three girls in the bathing suits, and the lady at the register. The author Updike describes the character very well. “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits..; the one that caught my eye was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the back of her leg (234).” Sammy recognized this by just a glance at these girls in bathing suits. I can tell that Sammy also liked these particular girls by the way, he nicknamed them; Queenie, Plaid and Big Tall Goony- Goony were so different from the normal “sheep” that came in the store. Sammy also described a local customer as he called her “the cash register watcher,” “a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows (234).” This particular character reminded me of many of my customers that come out of the convenient store that I worked. There are always the certain customers that want to give cashiers hell just because they are having a bad day. That is just the way customers are that goes and comes in the store throughout the day. There were many