Why Sammy Really Quits

Why Sammy Really Quits
At first glance, Sammy, the first-person narrator of John Updike’s A & P, would seem to present us with a simple and plausible explanation as to why he quits his job at the grocery store mentioned in the title: he is standing up for the girls that his boss, Lengel, has insulted. He even tries to sell us on this explanation by mentioning how the girls’ embarrassment at the hands of the manager makes him feel inside and by referring to himself as their “unsuspected hero” after he goes through with his “gesture” (Updike 609). Upon closer examination, though, it does not seem plausible that Sammy would have quit in defense of girls whom he quite evidently despises, despite the lustful desires they invoke, and a more likely explanation of his action lie in his boredom with his menial job and his desire to rebel against his parents and society as a whole.
While it’s true that Sammy finds the three scantily clad girls who enter the supermarket attra...