Character And Point Of View In A&P

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Character and Point of View in “A&P”

The story “A&P” is a short story that has many good qualities. It is told from the first person point of view of Sammy. The story is about the brief experience of three young women in bathing suits in the A&P store where Sammy worked as a cashier. The story shows us much about Sammy and how he views the world. This view of Sammy is made more complete because the story is told from his point of view. This enables the reader to see what he is thinking and to have a better understanding of how he may be feeling. The story, “A&P” show us much about how young men may sometimes view the world.
In the story “A&P” the main character is a grocery store clerk named Sammy. Sammy is a young man who had turned nineteen the past April. The story is told from Sammy’s perspective which gives us insight into his thoughts and emotions. Sammy is a selfish, shallow young man views women mainly as objects for men to lust after. Sammy’s view of women is reinforced time and time again throughout the story. Within the first five lines of the story he begins to stare at and then describe a young girl’s “can” to the point that he is distracted enough as to not know whether he had rung up a box of HiHo crackers that he has in his hands. His disrespectful view of the female gender is again brought to light in the way he describes the woman who he has accidentally charged twice for the HiHo crackers. He describes her as a witch and immediately begins to say that she probably had enjoyed yelling at him for making a mistake. He then proceeds to make a comment about how he had to “smooth her feathers” and stated that had she been born at the right time she would have been burned at the stake. After he gets done criticizing the customer his attention returns to the three young girls in bathing suits. He begins to describe each one’s appearance being sure to point out any flaws tha...