A&P Story

In the story of “A&P” the main character is names Sammy. He is the narrator of the story. The story begins with Sammy at the third check out slot waiting to check out customers. What Sammy thinks will be a normal day at work will actually make his world harder when three girls come in to shop.

When Sammy first sees the three girls he is very judgmental. He describes one of the girls as being chunky. The second girl he describes as being tall with black hair and having a chin that is too long. The third girl he names “the queen”. She was not quite so tall, and she walked straight and slowly. He also calls other customers sheep.

Sammy is also a bitter person. He gets frustrated with a customer who “gives him hell” whenever he rings up an item twice. He even thinks to himself that it made her day to trip him up. From the things he thinks about his customers, I think he does not enjoy his job and is bitter about working there.

Sammy is definitely a dynamic character. At the beginning of the story he is judgmental of the three girls that come in to shop. When his boss, Lengel, confronts the girls on their attire, Sammy becomes upset with Lengel. His total mindset is changed about these girls whenever he hears “the queen” answer Lengels questions. Sammy does not like the fact that Lengel embarrasses the girls and decides to quit! This action shows how his mindset changes and he becomes more caring towards his customers. Sammy is also very confident in his decision to quit and thinks once you begin a gesture it is fatal not to go through with it.

I think Sammy realized how miserable and judgmental he was when Lengel confronted the three girls. The difference was that Sammy judged in his mind and Lengel judged the girls out loud in front of other customers. This was the turning point for Sammy that made him realize he did not want to continue working at A&P and end up like Lengel.