A&P
The Age of Innocence or Ignorance
Language and Point of View
Housekeeping
 1. play rehearsal 12/10 (Wed) noon and
advisor time
 2. e-text vs. textbook
 3. group advisor:
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Group 1-4: Kate
Group 5-8: Julia
Group 9-12: Andrew
Our email address: introlit2014@gmail.com
Outline
1. Q & A & General Introduction
2. Structure  Queenie in grace, disgraced, and the
“hero” fights back to no avail.
3. Language and Style  contrasting two kinds of
people
4. Discussion:
a. Points of View
b. Ending
c. The Swimming Suit Issue: Sammy vs. the Other
Characters
d. Setting & Theme
A&P
General Introduction
John Updike & “A&P”
Updike on “A&P”
John Updike (1932–2009)
 Originally he had 3
more pages
describing Sam’s
going up to the beach
to find the girls, but
without success
 A filmic adaptation,
followed by an
interview
Norton
“A&P” Characters
 Sammy
 Lengel, Stokesie, McMahon (at the meat
counter)
 3 girls: (par 2)
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The First Friend (“Plaid”)
The Second Friend (“Big Goony Goony)
Queenie
 Customers
Structure –Rescuing the Queen
1. Beginning: In media res – in the middle of a
sequence of an event or a story.
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Long description of the three girls with a
focus on Queenie, juxtaposed with short
descriptions of the other customers.
2. Middle: “Now here comes the sad part of the
story” (par 11)
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confrontation between the girls and Lengel;
Between Lengel and Sammy
3. Ending: out of the supermarket.
“A&P” Structure
 In medias res (Latin "in the midst of things")
Beginning (1-10)
• The three girls come in and described
Middle: Lengel .vs. the girls (1121)
• “Now here comes the sad part of the
story” …all the time thinking
Conclusion (22-32) Sam vs.
Lengel
• “I quit”  I felt how hard the world was
going to be to me hereafter
Q&A: Your Responses
 Why did Stokesie call the author "Daddy"?
(Since Stokesie was older than him.)
"Oh Daddy," Stokesie said beside me. "I
feel so faint.“ (7)
"Darling," I said. "Hold me tight."
Stokesie's married, with two babies chalked
up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can
tell that's the only difference. He's twenty-two,
and I was nineteen this April. (8)
Sammy’s Language: Your Choice
 (team 8!)
 1.Sammy's os - a good tan and a sweet
broad soft-looking can with those two
crescents of white just under it. Bright green
and the seams on the bra.
 2.description of Queenie - Sammy thinks the
most beautiful girl is untouchable , so he
nicknames her "Queenie", which refers as
"Queen.“ For example, she held her head so
high her neck,......;but I (Sammy) doesn't
mind. The longer her neck is ,the more of her
there is. (par 4)
Sammy’s Language: Your Choice
 3.argument with the boss - It begins with
Sammy saying "I quit !" Just because the girls
are embarrassed by the boss. It shows that
Sammy is like other teenagers, who always
do something without thinking twice. However
a sudden impulse made Sammy quit his job,
neglecting what the boss says and what his
parents' feeling. In the end, it turned out that
Sammy does regret when he turns back,
seeing his boss ringing up, with a dark gray
face standing alone.
Sammy’s Language (1)
1. Colloquial: omission, rep, coined words, run-on
S and misplaced modifier – pars 13, 52 –first
sentences.)
2. Concrete with vivid details and things he is
familiar with (e.g. games, women’s bodily parts-breasts and bottoms, supermarket)
3. Vivid and imaginative: e.g. the girl’s voice (par
14), the sound of the cash register (par 21).
Sammy’s Language (2)
4. Stereotyping and exaggerative: Tends to divide
up people into two groups--one he likes, and one
he dislikes—and exaggerates their differences.
(e.g. Sheep vs. Queen)
e.g. “You could see them [the other customers],
when Queenie's white shoulders dawned on
them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup, but their
eyes snapped back to their own baskets and
on they pushed.” (par 5)
Other descriptions of the customers (par 12, 30)
e.g. Queenie vs. the dynamites
Example of Sammy’s Language (3)—
Queenie
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Queenie:-- sex + queenly manners
 The way she walks; square-shouldered and longnecked.
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“the oaky hair that the sun and salt had bleached.”
 She had on a kind of dirty-pink—beige maybe, I
don't know—bathing suit with a little nubble all over
it and, what got me, the straps were down;
 shining rim; top of her chest like “a dented sheet of
metal tilted in the light”
 The bill from the girl’s cleavage: “from between the
two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever
known...."
Summary and Preview: Point of
View
 Participant (or first-person) point of view;
--1) as protagonist: e.g. “A & P,” “Boys and Girls”
“Araby”
-- 2) as witness
(“we” –”A Rose for Emily”) (*Issue—reliable nor not)
 Non-participant (or third-person) point of view.
--1) neutral omniscience –objective
--2) editorial omniscience – (with judgment)
--3) selective omniscience -- e.g. “20/20”
 Enter the mind or not;  stream of
consciousness (later)
Discussion Questions
 Group 1, 5, 9- Point of View –Sammy’s vs. Queenie’s
or Lengel’s (description or performance of dialogue)
 Group 2, 6, 10- Ending –What do we make of it?
Would you quit the job if you were in Sam’s position?
Which ending do you prefer?*
 Group 3, 7, 11- Swimming Suit or not: The Girls’,
Sammy’s, Lengel’s, Stoksie’s and the Other Customers’
Points of View (description or performance)
 Group 4, 8. 12- Setting & Theme (analysis or recreation)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJImoQJsgEs
Let’s Take a Break!!!
 And start our group discussion 10:16- 11:06
 Come back to this classroom at 11:16
sharp!
Period 2: Discussion Time 10:1011:00
 2-groups’ (1,2, 7,8) presentation, (9, 10, 3, 4)
practice raising questions
Question Group no.
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Group
no.
5
6
7
8
Group
no.
9
10
11
12
 3rd hour: (5. 6. 11, 12) present; (9, 10, 3, 4)
ask questions
Point of View: Related Issues
 the “I-narrator” is not the author
 E.g. “The author described the woman as a "witch".
This analogy not only described her appearance, but
also her personality. She likes to pick on others, and
Sammy was the victim this time.”
 Sense of Immediacy, sympathy –induced by first-
person point of view?  “A & P”
 Objectivity, human littleness? –suggested by thirdperson point of view? “20/20”?
 Only one point of view in telling a story?
No. The change of point of view or tone means a lot.
The Character (1)—Sammy &
Queenie
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1.
Is he a sexist?
Attentive to sexual details and judgmental
(“Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not
that as raw material she was so bad), ”);
2. About the girls’ minds: “You never know for sure
how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind
in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass
jar?) ”
3. Wants to play hero, but he is not and cannot be one.
4. His move futile; he is self-centered, but he is indeed
courageous.
 How about Queenie?
The Queen –Is she really queenly?
1. Seemingly proud and self-assured –

slow-motioned and a bit exaggerated in her
walk;
 Holds her head tall;
2. In response to Lengel
 Her voice when speaking to Lengel; (par. 14)
 Feeble attempt at defending herself: “We’re
decent.” (par 18)
3. Her family background, different from
Sammy’s
Class Differences between Q & S
 Herring snacks
 Lemonade and Schlitz
 Cocktail Drink with olive
(beer)
 Glasses with cartoon
figures
Par. 14
Sammy’s Point of View of the “Sheep“
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The middle-aged customer --"about fifty," and a "witch" of the
sort he's learned once flourished in nearby Salem; with"rouge
on her cheekbones and no eyebrows" but nothing else that
might stir him in the direction of sympathy.” (par 1)
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
and muttering . . .(par 5)
"house slaves in pin curlers“; (par 5)
"old party in baggy gray pants who stumbles up [to his checkout
lane] with four giant cans of pineapple juice" (par 12)
"women with six children and varicose veins mapping their
legs." (par 10)
"like scared pigs in a chute“; (par 30)
 Is Sammy a reliable narrator?
Ending (1): What Happens?
 “"You'll feel this [regret] for the rest of your life,"
Lengel says, and I know that's true, too.”
 The girls gone;
 Sammy’s action: “I just saunter into the electric eye in
my white shirt that my mother ironed the night before,
and the door heaves itself open, and outside the
sunshine is skating around on the asphalt.”
 Sammy’s feeling: “His face was dark gray and his
back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and
my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world
was going to be to me hereafter.”
Ending (2): What Happens?
 After Sammy quits, he goes out to the parking lot and
sees not the girls, but “some young married
screaming with her children about some candy they
didn’t get.”
 What do you think about the ending? Has Sammy
achieved anything? Or arrived at some type of
awareness of his future prospect?
Swimming Suit Issue
1. Social Propriety: Respecting local
customs and manners
2. Avoiding confrontation
3. Swimming suit’s symbolic meaning:
freedom, leisure, sexuality
Putting Sammy in his
Position
Analyzing
1. his Point of View (vs. the Others) and
2. his Social Position (in the Setting)
Sammy in Context (1): the Other Characters
(2): Stokesie, McMahon and Lengel.
 Stokesie –
 ‘"Oh Daddy," Stokesie said beside me. "I feel so faint."
"Darling," I said. "Hold me tight." Stokesie's married,
with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but
as far as I can tell that's the only difference.” . . .wants
to be a manager.
 old McMahon—”patting his mouth and looking after
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them sizing up their joints. Poor kids, I began to feel
sorry for them, they couldn't help it.”
Lengel: patient and old and gray
 more practical or less polite in their stare at the
girls.
How would they look at Sammy?
How about the shoppers?
Sammy in Context (2): Setting &
Imagery  Symbolic Meanings?
 Supermarket: fluorescent light (vs. sunlight),
checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile
floor.(par 6)
 A lot of merchandize: e.g. a pyramid of Diet
Delight peaches, Caribbean Six or Tony
Martin Sings, plastic toys, etc..
 Images of the mundane, the business world
and capitalism  which places people, as
consumers and workers, in different classes
and increases their differences.
 What difference would it make if this story
were placed in another setting?
Theme and Message
 The story as an initiation story (成長故事) in
which the 19-year-old Sammy has a rite of
passage (成年禮) at a supermarket.
 Self (Personal Aspiration) against Society
(Social Control)
 Does he grow up?
 Yes, he realizes he cannot be a hero. But
his realization is a bit self-centered and too
dramatic.
Next Time
 Another initiation story.
 Be patient when reading the images which
will later take on symbolic meanings when
they get grouped together (in image clusters).