“I looked around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course” (Updike). In this story, Updike really seems to use the subject of teenagers versus adults. The story starts with a teenage boy working a part time job in a convenient store, and three teenage girls dressed in bathing suits walk in. A lot of the story involves the boy, Sammy’s, interest in the three girls. Towards the end, the conflict comes in to play when Sammy’s manager comes out and embarrasses the girls by telling them they need to be decently dressed when shopping in his store. Sammy doesn’t like the way he treated the girls, so he stands up to him and quits. In the end, Sammy doesn’t get anything out of quitting and sort of regrets his foolish decision.
“A & P” is a story with a great lesson to be learned. People can look at the way Sammy quit his job because he let his emotions get the best of him and see that you should think before you act. Sammy realized that he made a bad decision by quitting after he had already gone through with it. Teenagers can use this story a lot more than any other age people. From personally reading this story I could connect with almost all aspects of it. Teenagers sometimes are not taken seriously by adults, and Sammy was just standing up for what he believed in. That in itself is a lesson, stand up for what you believe in, but also know the consequences of your actions. Sammy realized after he quit that it wasn’t worth it and that he shouldn’t have. Honestly, I think that “A & P” can be enjoyed by anybody from a teenager to an adult, because all of these ages could get something useful from the story. Anyone younger than a teenager may not truly understand the story, therefore they wouldn’t enjoy it.