Watermarks "One Arm Bandit" Wannabe by Erin Quigley

Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of "A&P," writes from Sammy's point of view, making him not only the main character but also the first person narrator. The tone of the story is set by Sammy's attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammy's thoughts, for he tends to make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of "play."

Sammy is no longer a child, but much of what he observes he describes as the play that he did as a child. The way he thinks can also be described as childlike play, in terms of his being disrespectful and needing to show off. Updike demonstrates, however, that Sammy desires to be thought of as an adult, and many of his references are to the type of play that adults might engage in. Sammy, like many adults, does not think in what is considered an adult manner, but Updike uses the plot's climax and conclusion to show that Sammy has learned a tough lesson that will speed up his transition into adulthood.

Sammy begins to play from the moment he lays eyes on three girls who enter the A&P one slow summer Thursday evening during the early 1960s. He comes up with a name, based on appearance, for each of the barely dressed girls. He nicknames them as children do to poke fun at one another. Ronald E. McFarland describes how this name-calling "indicate[s] his immaturity and lack of compassion" (99). Sammy makes fun of customers as well: McFarland says, "His descriptions of customers as sheep, or as 'scared pigs in a chute' may be funny, but a moment's reflection shows them to be simply jejune," or juvenile (99).

Sammy's play continues as he his eyes follow the three girls around the store, and he notes the way that the one he has named "Queenie" is definitely the leader. She would "buzz to the other two, who kind of huddled against her for relief" (28). Sammy sees this as a game of follow-the-leader as well as a game of hide-and-seek, because, as Queenie "led them, the other two [would] peek around and make their shoulders round" (27).

Sammy is shallow and sexist in the way he has named these young women according to his first impression of their bodies and behaviors. Patrick W. Shaw notes that "Sammy knows what is on each aisle in the store and constantly thinks of what is inside bottles, cans, and jars; but he has no idea what is inside the girls, no sensitivity to their psychology or sexual subtlety. His awareness stops with their sweet cans and ice-cream breasts" (322). Sammy further demonstrates his childishness and chauvinism by commenting on the mental abilities of the girls: "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?)" (27).

This comment ironically lets the reader know more about the way Sammy's mind works. Shaw agrees, suggesting that Sammy's "mind is even less than a bee in a jar" (322). Sammy is still absorbed in thinking about the games he played as a cild and maybe even in the present. He imagines the contents of bottles, cans, and jars, as children would do with a wrapped gift or a jack-in-the-box before it pops out. He imagines catching insects in these containers, probably to watch them frantically try to escape. Sammy's thoughts reflect the narrow mentality of the ho-hum New England town in which he works. This setting has neither the vitality of neighboring Boston nor the beauty and prestige of the beach that lies only five miles away.

Sammy also makes references to games more typically played by adults, games that he has probably tried to play in his attempts to appear more adult. Instead of working in checkout aisle three, he says that he is in the "third check-out slot" (27) while "Stokesie [is] in the second slot" (28). The slots can be considered slot machines, such as those used in adult gambling casinos. Adults use these "one arm bandits" for fun, a substitute for the games they engaged in as children. Sammy then relates, "Slots three through seven are unmanned and [he] could see her wandering between [Stokesie] and [himself], but Stokes with his usual luck draws... " (29), which is a reference to gambling in the form of slot machines and card playing. Get three cherries in a row or draw the correct card, and, with luck, one wins big money. Sammy is not so interested in winning money; he is interested in winning the hearts of these girls, especially of Queenie.

Sammy's quest to win the favor of these three barely dressed female customers becomes a game in itself. He watches their every move as they go up and down the aisles of the A&P; they are a form of entertainment not only for him but also for other employees, such as Stokesie and McMahon. In his desire for them to pay attention to him, Sammy enters a self-imposed competition with Stokesie, a little game that Sammy wins when the girls end up at his cash register, "slot" three.

The fun of the game ends when Lengel, the store manager, enters the picture. He tells the girls twice, "'[T]his isn't the beach'... as if it had just occured to him, and he had been thinking all these years the A&P was a great big dune and he was the head lifeguard" (29). Again, this is Sammy's way of describing the way that even adults use their imaginations to get through the repetition and drudgery of everyday life. Imagination is a form of play. Then Sammy embarks upon the ultimate form of play that, although immature, is sometimes used by adults to make an impression on others. He ultimately sacrifices his job, saying, "'I quit'... hoping [the girls] will stop and watch [him], their unsuspected hero" (30). This "gesture," as Sammy calls it, is in itself a game.

James A. Schiff describes why Sammy engages in this risky game: "Perhaps Sammy... wishes to make a statement. In this regard, he imitates the girls, wishing to be as outrageous as they have been and hoping, no doubt, that his act will somehow draw him closer to them. If this is the case, then he fails" (116). As implied by Schiff, Sammy's gesture/game does not have the results for which he hopes. Upon exiting the A&P, he realizes that the girls are gone, and he looks back to see Lengel taking control of abandoned slot three. It suddenly occurs to Sammy that he is on his own now, that his parents, who supposedly got him the job at the A&P, will not support his decision and will surely not do him any more favors.

In his epiphany, Sammy realizes that it is responsible behavior, not playing "adult-like" games, that will make him a true adult. The theme of "A&P" is this transition from childhood to adulthood, a process that everyone experiences in one's own way and time. In Sammy's case, it is provoked by this incident at the A&P, which he will probably never forget. His "stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be to [him] thereafter" (31). He learns that life is not a game and that people, especially superiors, cannot be "played." Fun is certainly acceptable, but not when it is demeaning or disrespectful to other people.

Day, Frank. John Updike Revisited. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1998.

McFarland, Ronald E. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983): 95-100.

Shaw, Patrick W. "Checking Out Faith and Lust: Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' and Updike's 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1988): 321-323.

Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.