John Updike’s “A&P” begins “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits”(487). The title and first line surprise us almost as much as the girls did the other characters in the story. We are surprised again when Sammy, the narrator, quits his checkout job at the end of the story. Sammy does not tell us anything about himself except his age, 19. Updike decided it was important we understand Sammy is at …showed first 75 words of 1674 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1674 total…themselves as above reproach because of their high social status. Sammy is caught in the middle. He does not care for his position in life, and sympathizes with the girls’ innocent transgression. He has had a glimpse of a different world, and can no longer be happy in his or easily make his way into the other. He is like the proverbial man without a country now, and will find acceptance difficult in either environment.