A&P
The Age of Innocence or Ignorance
Outline
1. Ending –What do we make of it? Do we
agree with Sammy?
2-4. What do you think about Sammy as a
Character and a Narrator?
a) His Language
b) Sammy in Context (1): The
Characters & their Points of View
c)
Sammy in Context (2): Setting
5. What do you think is theme of this story?
And its view on teenagers?
1. Activity: Outlining -- make an argument
about the text and an outline.
1. Ending: What do you make of it?
 “’Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and
Dad," he tells me. It's true, I don't. But it seems to me
that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go
through with it.”
 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.”
2. Sammy’s Language: Give
Examples
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Colloquial: omission, rep, coined words, run-on S and
misplaced modifier – pars 13, 52 –first sentences.)
Concrete with vivid details and things he is familiar with (e.g.
games, women’s bodily parts--breasts and bottoms,
supermarket)
Vivid and imaginative: e.g. the girl’s voice, the sound of the
cash register.
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)
Observant: about customers and class differences between him
and Queenie
You don’t need to agree
with these descriptions,
but make sure that you
give examples.
“I felt how hard the world was going to be to me
hereafter.”
What does he mean by the World?
Let’s Put Sammy in his Position.
3. Describes Sam’s point of view vs. the
Others’ (e.g.Stokesie, McMahon and
Lengel)
4. Describes his Social Position vs. the
Setting
All the Groups: Main Argument +
Outline Practice
 Give one and make an outline






e.g. Sammy doesn't want to be an unsung hero, he wants to be
a hero that people know, be more specific, the girls’ hero.
e.g. Sammy’s decision is an impulsive one. As he walks out
the A&P, he betrays not only his boss, but his parents.
e.g. The girls represent changes in the social trend, which
Sammy is eager to follow.
e.g. Sammy thought that he defended the girls against an
injustice, but at the end he realizes how the world really
functions.
e.g. Sammy ends up being a lonely hero, whose act is not
appreciated or even seen by the victims.
e.g. Lengel stands for convention and authority, while Sammy
and the girls stand for liberation, wanting to break free from the
confinement. However, Sammy’s defense for the girls
accounts for nothing; instead, he is fired, which leaves him
jobless.
3. Sammy in Context (1): the Other
Characters -- More Realistic
 Stokesie, old McMahon?
 Lengel
 very patient and old and gray.
 Mentioning Sammy’s parents.
 "You'll feel this for the rest of your life,"
 His face was dark gray and his back stiff
 The supermarket customers
4. Sammy in Context (2): Setting &
Imagery  “Society”
 New England small town
 Supermarket: fluorescent light (vs. sunlight),
checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor.(par
6)
 A lot of merchandise: e.g. a pyramid of Diet Delight
peaches, Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings, plastic
toys, etc..
 Images of the mundane and capitalism + aisles +
pinball machine  which places people, as
consumers, in different classes and increases their
differences.
 Where romance is impossible, or artificial.
The Consumer Society
 [The girls] keep right on going, into the electric eye;
 The other signs of this commodity society:



(par 21) "Hello (bing) there, you (gung) hap-py
pee-pul (splat)"—the splat being the drawer flying
out.  meaning?
"Sammy" stitched in red on the pocket  meaning?
[at the end—the girls are gone. Instead, he
sees ]some young married screaming with her
children about some candy they didn't get by the
door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon.
5. What do you think is the
theme (or themes) of this story?
And its view on teenagers?
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.


Does he grow up?
Is he too impulsive?
 Self (Personal Aspiration) against Society
(Social Control)

In what ways are his views of the others
correct?
All the Groups: Main Argument +
Outline Practice
0. e.g. Sammy is actually a sexist limited by his provincial
background, although he means to defend the three girls.
A. To defend the three girls, Sammy quits the job which his
parents care a lot about.
B. Sammy does so because
1.
2.
C.
He does not identify with A & P, and looks down upon the
customers in the supermarket.
He is very much attracted to Queenie
Sammy is actually too limited and sexist to make changes; his
is just a “gesture” which only gets him out of job.
1.
2.
3.
He is limited by his class background,
He is also very conditioned by the commodities in the
supermarket and in his world
By the same token, he is conditioned by a sexist ideology which
gets him to pay attention to only a standard type of beauty.
All the Groups: Main Argument +
Outline Practice
1. e.g. Sammy doesn't want to
be an unsung hero, he
wants to be a hero that
people know, be more
specific, the girls’ hero.
2. e.g. Sammy’s decision is an
impulsive one. As he walks
out of A&P, he betrays not
only his boss, but his
parents.
All the Groups: Main Argument +
Outline Practice
3. e.g. The girls represent
changes in the social trend,
which Sammy is eager to
follow.
4. e.g. Sammy thought that he
defended the girls against an
injustice, but at the end he
realizes how the world really
functions.
All the Groups: Main Argument +
Outline Practice
5. e.g. Sammy ends up being a
lonely hero, whose act is
not appreciated or even
seen by the victims.
6. Lengel stands for convention
and authority, while Sammy
and the girls stand for
liberation, wanting to break free
from the confinement.
However, Sammy’s defense for
the girls accounts for nothing;
instead, he is fired, which
leaves him jobless.