We listened to a reading of John Updike's short story "A&P." What did you find most interesting or strange about the story? How is the way the story is told (in the first person by Sammy, in the present tense) working to affect your experience as a listener/reader? What were you initial assumptions about the story, and did they change at all after our discussion in class?
(Remember: write in the comments of this post, and try to have a conversation rather than individually posting your responses.)
In most romance novels, Romeo makes a grand gesture and Juliet falls in love. I found it interesting how this story displays more real life scenario. Two people are not in perfect sync, the moment they meet; most of the time one person is completely aware of the other person and the other person has no clue that person even is living. The story you make up in your mind is sometimes the most realistic thing, but only to you.
ReplyDeleteIn the story A & P Sammy stands up to his boss for the girls who enter the store in bathing suits. I do not think that the reason Sammy stood up for the girls justified the reason that he quit his job. I can relate this to a time in my life when I when I worked in a clothing store. I worked very hard and dilligently for four hours after every long exhausting day at school. My boss expected me to be working at a mile a minute and even when I was putting all of my effort into the job it never seemed to be enough. One day when my boss yelled at me for a small missunderstanding one of the women I worked with snapped and yelled at my boss for treating me poorly. The woman I worked with precreeded to quit and continued to express her dissaproval of how they were treating an over worked 16 year old so poorly.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, a student was living with his friends instead of family. This, apparently, is against my high school's rules or law (I'm not really sure). Anyways, he got suspended for living with friends. The next day there were plenty of people in front of the school protesting the student's suspension. They had signs and were arguing against the school's decision to suspend the student. Eventually, the school's decison to suspend the student was revoked, and I think this was partly because of the protests.
ReplyDeleteI found the fact that the girls were wearing bikinis into a store interesting and strange at the same time. Hearing the short story is strange because the story is read in first person with the voice of a female although the narrator in the story itself is male. I initially assumed the story would be boring and long but after hearing the sound bit, I realized that the story was concise and had an unorthodox plot.
ReplyDeleteI think that even though the reason behind quitting seemed like a bad one, the principle behind it was with good intentions. He stood up for an injustice, however minor and insignificant it was, and I think that his actions are somewhat justified. After hearing about war and child abductions happening in Uganda, I joined a nonprofit called Invisible Children that is working to end the injustice. Yes, my cause is probably more justified than the character's cause but if he felt that it was unfair, he had to react in whatever way he felt he could. I think the fact that the story was happening in present tense allows the reader to understand the person's rash behavior better because the character acted without thinking much as the story shows.
ReplyDeleteI also find it interesting that although the effects of the girls' actions will last them for awhile, they will probably forget about the incident and it won't affect them for long, while the narrator's actions have long-term effects assuming that he is unable to find work easily.
I liked that it was told in first person. It gives you the idea as if you were him. You can imagine yourself as him. It is funny to listen to a guys perspective by a girl narrator. It was a real life situation. It wasn't a fairy tale that when you listen to it you wish it would come true but new it would never happen to you. It was interesting that he told the girls he quit his job. I know that i wouldn't want a boyfriend without a job. He made a mistake and maybe he will learn from it. The story isn't as boring as it was expressed it class. It gives you a great example of using description.
ReplyDeleteI thought this story was actually pretty funny. I think we have all known, or maybe at one point have been, 'that guy'. What I mean by that is the person who will do anything to get a girls attention. While I feel bad for the main character in the story, I don't think it was anything for him to quit his job over. His boss was right, you shouldn't be walking around the A&P in your bathing suit!
ReplyDeleteI found the fact that Sammy would quit his job simply because of what his manager said about girls he did not know and to get a reaction out of the girls to be the most interesting and strange part of the story. I have heard of people standing up and quitting there job because they were not getting paid enough or their boss was treating he/she poorly. However, I have never heard of anyone quitting because of the way their boss treated customers. It is shocking to me that someone would do this. In the story, the customers were doing the wrong thing by wearing bathing suits into the store. The manager had reason to yell at them. Sammy had no reason to quit his job and when he did the girls did not even react as he expected them to.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that really stood out to me in the story was the language used. The lack of complete sentences bothered me a bit in the beginning, but then I remembered that it was told from a first person point of view and that the narrator was telling things a they actually happened. I did not quite understand the narrator's reason for quitting his job. The manager is the one in charge of the store and it's not like he kicked the girls out. He just gave them a warning. Even if he quit to impress the girls, it did not seem to work, rather it scared them away. I wish that his motives would have been a bit more clear because the story was told in first person.
ReplyDeleteThe most striking part of this story to me was when Sammy says "I quite." Quitting his job does not seem to me to be the best idea when trying to get a girl. The first person, present tense provides a very good representation of what Sammy is thinking to the listener. Initially I thought Sammy was entirely wrong about quitting his job but, after discussing in class, I can see how he might have other reasons besides just the girls. He could be trying to advance out of the A&P shop and find something better for his life.
ReplyDeleteI took an Asian art class when I was a freshman in college. An American student claimed his own idea about Taiwan's sovereignty, and discuss Chinese government problem in front of the class. His suddenly statement violated all Chinese students’ feeling about their Country. So one of my Chinese classmates stand out, and involved in a intense argument with the American student. The professor was shocked, and tried to stop them. I feel like his explanation is a good thing, but this argument used 10 minutes of the class, and nothing related to course topic. Everybody keeps their own political opinion; maybe they can talk about it after the class.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most striking about this story is that Sammy quits his job to try to impress the girls who walk into A&P with bikinis on. This does not make since to me because most girls like it when their significant other makes some money. These girls were 15 years old and I am still wondering why he bothered quiting his job and losing income for some younger girls who just strolled into the store.
ReplyDeleteI found the part about the angry customer that Sammy described as a witch a strange addition to the story. What does writing about her contribute to the main theme of the story?
ReplyDeleteI also find that Sammy describes the girls as if he was observing a separate species. It seems to me that he is describing them as a small pack of majestic wild animals. He names one the queen, the clear leader, and the other two her betas. He does not relate them to human beings other than describing their bodies and swimsuits.
Sammy, to me, seems to be one of those guys that would do anything to get the girl. True, it was not a very good decision for Sammy to quit his job, but in the end you can't help but feel bad for him.
For me, I would rather believe that Sammy quitted his job because he had seen how his boss treat those girls, although this is not likely to make a difference. Here is one of my personal experience. It was April in 2010 and the traditional Chinese College Entrance Exam would take place 2 months later so everyone in my high school did everything they can trying to improve their academic performance. Even though I had been accepted by OSU at that time I insisted to stay for classes. Some of my classmates tended to hold an opinion that "this person has done everything he should in his high school life and he does not have to focus on the Exam. He is here just for fun". In a class meeting my Math teacher stood up and said "I know some of you guys think Cai has been accepted by a foreign university so that his staying here is meaningless. But can you give me a reason why you mock at someone who can leave instantly but still chooses to be here doing the same thing like all of you?"
ReplyDeleteI suppose I am thankful to my teacher even though the situation did not really change..At least my last two month in high school told me that there are always someone standing up against unrighteous treatment.
It is a lonely world to be in when you have no heros.
DeleteI thought it was interesting in this story how this young man decided to quit his job for these girls, when it really had no effect on them whatsoever. Obviously it was in the moment and he did it just because of a girl, but in the long run he basically screwed himself over.. considering he was really connected through his family with this job and it was a possible career path. My initial assumptions of the girls was that they were chubby and not that cute, but I find it really interesting how his perspective on the girls greatly changes throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteI would say it was rather startling for Sammy to quit his job over the treatment of the girls in the store for a multitude of reasons. I would go ahead and say that throwing out your life to try and impress a girl is not the best idea. When you also consider the times that this story takes place, it is equally shocking that th girls showed up in public as they did as well as somebody standing up for them. Now Sammy didn't stand up to to his boss because he thought it was the right thing to do but because he thought it would impress the girls, which it did not, but he did stand up for them and their right to a freedom of sorts. This raises an interesting question, does standing up for the right things for the wrong reasons still mean that you did the right thing in the end? Many things in history have been done with the best intentions and been absolutely terrible while others for terrible reasons and ended in great things. This story embodies this very well. It is my personal belief, that to a point, the ends do justify the means; meaning that as long as the overarching goal is worthwhile, it does not really matter your reason why you fight for it but as long as you do.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you analyze anything you can find some "other meaning" in it. Maybe this story is so good because it was written by Jon Updike. I would be willing to bet the money that I will spend through the remainder of my college education that ,if I were to turn in this story without it have ever been known to be a Jon Updike work, it would not be considered a display of literary genius. Keep in mind that I am not a competent critic of literature so, I am sure that my not being able to see the meaning in a story like this is my failure and not his.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting about the story was how the clerk quit his job trying to impress the girls and they didn't even notice. Even after he tried to speak loudly to the manager and repeat that he was quitting his job. Once he realized they didn't notice he should have took back his decision and stayed but he felt it was already too late. The way the story was told was strange because the woman spoke in the present tense talking about liking the girl. It makes the reader feel like they are there in the situation. I already had the assumptions we needed with at the end of the class and that the boy quit to stand up for what he thought was right. Also that the manager was being too harsh and was just trying to embarrass the girls.
ReplyDeleteThis story was very interesting especially because it showed the audience the mind of a teenage boy. He quit his job in the short run just to go after the girls that walked into the store and were treated badly but in the long run there was a different story. He had basically ruined his entire career basis with his family. The fact that this story was in the first person made it more intimate and easier to understand what the main character was thinking. With that in mind the audience can kind of understand why he did what he did. One thing I found strange about the story was that the store was so far away from the beach and girls still came in in bikinis. We talked about this in class but it still seems weird to me.
ReplyDeleteSomething this story really emphasizes is that he got absolutely no attention from the girls for his stand against his boss. I think this shows a lot about how men think; the clerk was willing to screw himself over basically because he thought a girl was attractive. While I think the boss did embarrass the girls, and something should have been said, but the clerk only really said anything because he wanted to impress them. I think that perspective can be applied to a lot of things in life, we do a lot of the things we do not because it is the right thing, but because of how we want to be perceived.
ReplyDeleteWhen I listened this story for the first couple of minutes, I thought it was boring, because it just kept describing images and four young girls. But after it kept going, I got something interesting to me. In order to capture one of the girls attention, the young men just quit his job for her. It seems stupid to decide his career life just by the influence of someone whom he only met once. However, from my opinion, the story can think from another way. He was brave enough to stand out for authority although just for something not important. It still shows young people's courage to fight against with powerful convention.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found most interesting about the story was that the main character quits his job defending these girls that don't even really acknowledge him in the slightest bit. The fact that he gave up his job for something like that is strange to me since he'll probably never see those girls again. I guess you can give him credit on standing up for the girls since it was brave and morally right. I've read this story in high school and reading again didn't make me like it more or less. I feel like he was living in the moment and maybe thought by sticking up for these girls he would impress them, but to his dismay it didn't work. I could only imagine that he highly regretted quitting his job after he got nothing out of sticking up for the girls.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that the store clerk was willing to throw his job away in order to stand up for some random girls that he's never seen before and probably won't see for the rest of his life. If his motive for quitting was simply to impress the girls and increase his chances of getting to know them, I think he was very dumb for making this decision. However, there is also a chance that he quit his job for reasons other than self-interest. I think that it would have been a righteous action if the store clerk left his job in hopes that it would impact his employer and make him show more respect to his customers.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone throw away his/her job in the hopes of impressing a completely random person? Especially in the case of Sammy, where the bikini-wearing girls were clearly dressed inappropriately and yelled at by the store manager, quitting his job made no sense. Prior to class discussion, I was actually in favor of Sammy for standing up for the girls, even if he was just trying to impress them. Once I re-evaluated my standing after the class discussion, it became more apparent that his intentions were not well thought nor relevant.
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