Blog Post 5

On “A&P”

1. “A & P” is often described as a “coming of age” story, in which we watch a boy change significantly – perhaps not becoming a man, exactly, but making a decision that has implications beyond the literal and will mature him in various ways. This decision is influenced, possibly caused by his sense of masculinity and burgeoning sexuality. Explain how you see these things related: how does his gender identity/sexuality influence his decision? (Hint: consider his observations of other men). 

Sammy, a young man working as a clerk in a neighborhood grocery, becomes especially interested in three women who enter to store on a summer afternoon. He consider them, thinking to himself, "do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?" At the time this was written, women were supposed to fill roles society had set for them. Mother, wife, caregiver, come to mind. Modesty was almost certainly one of them. 

The manager, however, enforcing the rules of the store reminds the girls they can't come in dressed in bathing suits. 
 
Stokesie, also a young clerk, mutters, "oh daddy, I feel so faint." They are entranced by this woman's beauty. The old meat man couldn't get his eyes off them.

Sammy is absolutely entranced by these women, and attempts to do something on principle, quitting his job, because the way these girls were treated. Now he faces  realities of life, with no job, and no girl to comfort him.