A & P

The Age of Innocence or Ignorance

Outline1. Ending –What do we make of it? Do we

agree with Sammy?2-4. What do you think about Sammy as a

Character and a Narrator? a) His Languageb) Sammy in Context (1): The

Characters & their Points of View c) Sammy in Context (2): Setting

5. What do you think is theme of this story? And its view on teenagers?

1. Activity: Outlining -- make an argument about the text and an outline.

1. Ending: What do you make of it? “’Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad,"

he tells me. It's true, I don't. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.”

The girls gone; Sammy’s action: “I just saunter into the electric eye in my

white shirt that my mother ironed the night before, and the door heaves itself open, and outside the sunshine is skating around on the asphalt.”

Sammy’s feeling: “His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.”

2. Sammy’s Language: Give Examples1. Colloquial: omission, rep, coined words, run-on S and

misplaced modifier – pars 13, 52 –first sentences.) 2. Concrete with vivid details and things he is familiar with (e.g.

games, women’s bodily parts--breasts and bottoms, supermarket)

3. Vivid and imaginative: e.g. the girl’s voice, the sound of the cash register.

4. Stereotyping and exaggerative: Tends to divide up people into two groups--one he likes, and one he dislikes—and exaggerates their differences. (e.g. Sheep vs. Queen)

5. Observant: about customers and class differences between him and Queenie

You don’t need to agree with these descriptions, but make sure that you give examples.

“I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” What does he mean by the World?

Let’s Put Sammy in his Position.

3. Describes Sam’s point of view vs. the Others’ (e.g.Stokesie, McMahon and Lengel)

4. Describes his Social Position vs. the Setting

All the Groups: Main Argument + Outline Practice Give one and make an outline

e.g. Sammy doesn't want to be an unsung hero, he wants to be a hero that people know, be more specific, the girls’ hero.

e.g. Sammy’s decision is an impulsive one. As he walks out the A&P, he betrays not only his boss, but his parents.

e.g. The girls represent changes in the social trend, which Sammy is eager to follow.

e.g. Sammy thought that he defended the girls against an injustice, but at the end he realizes how the world really functions.

e.g. Sammy ends up being a lonely hero, whose act is not appreciated or even seen by the victims.

e.g. Lengel stands for convention and authority, while Sammy and the girls stand for liberation, wanting to break free from the confinement. However, Sammy’s defense for the girls accounts for nothing; instead, he is fired, which leaves him jobless.

3. Sammy in Context (1): the Other Characters -- More Realistic

Stokesie, old McMahon? Lengel

very patient and old and gray. Mentioning Sammy’s parents. "You'll feel this for the rest of your life," His face was dark gray and his back stiff

The supermarket customers

4. Sammy in Context (2): Setting & Imagery “Society”

New England small town Supermarket: fluorescent light (vs. sunlight),

checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor.(par 6)

A lot of merchandise: e.g. a pyramid of Diet Delight peaches, Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings, plastic toys, etc..

Images of the mundane and capitalism + aisles + pinball machine which places people, as consumers, in different classes and increases their differences.

Where romance is impossible, or artificial.

The Consumer Society [The girls] keep right on going, into the electric eye; The other signs of this commodity society:

(par 21) "Hello (bing) there, you (gung) hap-py pee-pul (splat)"—the splat being the drawer flying out. meaning?

"Sammy" stitched in red on the pocket meaning?

[at the end—the girls are gone. Instead, he sees ]some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn't get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon.

5. What do you think is the theme (or themes) of this story?

And its view on teenagers?

Theme and Message

The story as an initiation story (成長故事 ) in which the 19-year-old Sammy has a rite of passage (成年禮 ) at a supermarket.

Does he grow up? Is he too impulsive?

Self (Personal Aspiration) against Society (Social Control)

In what ways are his views of the others correct?

All the Groups: Main Argument + Outline Practice 0. e.g. Sammy is actually a sexist limited by his provincial background,

although he means to defend the three girls. A. To defend the three girls, Sammy quits the job which his parents

care a lot about. B. Sammy does so because

1. He does not identify with A & P, and looks down upon the customers in the supermarket.

2. He is very much attracted to QueenieC. Sammy is actually too limited and sexist to make changes; his is just

a “gesture” which only gets him out of job.1. He is limited by his class background, 2. He is also very conditioned by the commodities in the supermarket and

in his world 3. By the same token, he is conditioned by a sexist ideology which gets

him to pay attention to only a standard type of beauty.

All the Groups: Main Argument + Outline Practice 1. e.g. Sammy doesn't want to

be an unsung hero, he wants to be a hero that people know, be more specific, the girls’ hero.

2. e.g. Sammy’s decision is an impulsive one. As he walks out of A&P, he betrays not only his boss, but his parents.

All the Groups: Main Argument + Outline Practice 3. e.g. The girls represent

changes in the social trend, which Sammy is eager to follow.

4. e.g. Sammy thought that he defended the girls against an injustice, but at the end he realizes how the world really functions.

All the Groups: Main Argument + Outline Practice 5. e.g. Sammy ends up being

a lonely hero, whose act is not appreciated or even seen by the victims.

6. Lengel stands for convention and authority, while Sammy and the girls stand for liberation, wanting to break free from the confinement. However, Sammy’s defense for the girls accounts for nothing; instead, he is fired, which leaves him jobless.