"A & P" by John Updike

"A & P" by John Updike

Multiple Choice

Who is the narrator of "A & P"?

• John Updike

• an unnamed cashier

• Stokesie

• Sammy

Sammy

• Sammy clerks at an A&P market in the late 1950s early 1960s in a New England Massachusetts town.

Multiple Choice

How do we know the story takes place in Massachusetts?

• references "the cape"

• references being "north of Boston"

• says "Massachusetts"

• A & P chains were only in Massachusetts

Other Important Characters

Lengel

• Prudish

• manager of the A& P

• rule enforcer

Multiple Choice

What piece of evidence from the text implies Lengel's character?

• Lengel comes in from haggling with a

  truck full of cabbages on the lot

• about to scuttle into that door marked

  MANAGER behind which he hides all day

• He comes over and says, "Girls, this isn't the beach."

• teaches Sunday school and the rest,

Stokesie

• clerk at the A & P

• 22-years-old

• a father and husband

• has aspirations to be manager someday

• definitely notices the girls

Multiple Choice

What piece of evidence from the text implies that Stokesie definitely notices the girls?

• "Oh Daddy," Stokesie said beside me. "I feel so faint."

• Stokesie's married, with two babies chalked

  up on his fuselage already,

• as far as I can tell that's the only difference.

• I forgot to

  say he thinks he's going to be manager some sunny day,

The girls

• Sammy names them "Queenie," the leader of the group, "Plaid," a chubby girl in a plaid bikini, and "BigTall," because she is the tallest of the three

• create a "stir" in the A & P by coming into the store in bathing suits and barefooted

• Queenie keeps her money, a folded dollar bill, in her bathing suit top

The girls

• from a different social class than Sammy, Stokesie, and Lengel

• implied that they are "summer people" and not regular residents of the town

• are well-aware that they are making a statement

Multiple Choice

What piece of evidence from the story implies the girls' characterization?

• In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.

• It's one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach... and

  another thing in the cool of the A & P.

• She didn't look

  around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white

  prima donna legs.

• Still with that prim

  look she lifts a folded dollar bill out of the hollow at the center of her nubbled

  pink top.

The A & P Customers

• usually completely focused on their shopping

• stare at the girls

• Sammy does not think very highly of them

Multiple Choice

What textual evidence does NOT imply how Sammy feels about the A & P customers?

• She gives

  me a little snort in passing, if she'd been born at the right time they would have

  burned her over in Salem

• I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people

  would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists

• A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing

  their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct.

• The women

  generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into

  the street.

Multiple Select

What is the "divide" being referenced throughout the text?

• old vs. young (shoppers vs. the girls)

• working vs. leisure class (cashiers vs. vacationers)

• conservative values vs. "new" freedoms (Lengel vs. the girls)

• complacency vs. deviation (customers vs. the girls)

When Lengel tells the girls to leave,he embarrasses them and emphasizes a growing disconnect between the generations.

Spurred to action, Sammy quits, attempting to leave behind the store—and complacency

Poll

When Sammy quits, Lengel says "You'll feel this for the rest of your life."

Do you think this is true?

• Yes

• No

Open Ended

Why do you think that?

SYMBOLISM

Herring snacks in sour cream

Open Ended

Why do you think Updike had the girls go into the A & P for THIS PARTICULAR ITEM and not milk or bread?

These "fancy" snacks are contrasted to the narrator's own "lemonade and Schlitz" lifestyle

Open Ended

What do references to "LEMONADE" AND "SCHILTZ" mean as a social commentary?

MANAGER'S OFFICE

represents Lengels avoidance of the changes happening in society (and therefore avoiding life)

Open Ended

Why do you think Sammy refers to the A & P customers as sheep?

SHEEP

Sammy sees the men and women in the A & P as "following the herd" and not living an authentic, joyous life

THEMES

Sensuality vs. Property

• Lengel and his generation (symbolized by the customer in the A & P) are "Controlled" by policy and a conventional view of what is and is not decent.

Multiple Choice

What evidence from the text indicates this?

• "Girls, this isn't the beach."

• "That's all right," Lengel said. "But this isn't the beach."

• "We want

  you decently dressed when you come in here."

• "Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your

  shoulders covered. It's our policy."

Poll

Is Lengel wrong to enforce this?

• Yes

• No

Open Ended

Do stores (or schools, for that matter) have the right to tell you how you can and cannot dress? Why?

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

It's not just about the A & P

The girls’ appearance in the A&P wearing only bathing suits and Sammy's choice to quit foreshadow changes in society.

Open Ended

What kind of SOCIAL changes occurred in the 1960s?

Complacency vs. Deviation

• Sammy is SHOCKED into awareness by the girls

• Customers go back to their lives

• Sammy cannot

Poll

Do you agree that "without deviation from the norm, change is not possible"?

• Yes

• No

Open Ended

Explain. :)

Multiple Select

When Sammy quits, what is he quitting?

• a job he clearly never liked

• society's expectations

• his parents' expectations

• Stokesie's life of marriage and children by 22

Poll

In the last line of the story, Sammy says, "I felt how hard the world was going to be

to me hereafter."

Do you think he regrets quitting?

• Yes, because he will disappoint his parents.

• Yes, because the girls he was trying to impress didn't even notice.

• No, because he cannot return to his previous unaware life

• No, because he doesn't want to end up like Stokesie or Lengel.

Poll

How do you feel about the story overall

• I liked it.

• It didn't do it for me.