"A & P" author John Updike did a wonderful job portraying the point of view in this short story. Webster's dictionary defines point of view as a position from which something is considered or evaluated. In this short story, first person point of view is used by the narrator. A nineteen year old boy who works at a grocery story called A & P is the protagonist. At such a young age, Sammy has a teenage, wondering mind which he uses to get himself into more trouble than he can handle. The story is written in first person point of view because of Sammy's non-appropriate descriptions, his overreactions as the story concludes, and the large array of Sammy's foolish colloquial language.
The manager of the store is good friends with Sammy's parents, and they are the ones who got him the job. First person point of view shows the reader how Sammy overreacts as the story is foretold.
Engraving of Noah Webster, from the frontispiece o...
Sammy
John Updike liked being on the show and tried not ...The boy has to have patience being a cashier and must learn to cope with his frustration. At the beginning of the story you can tell that Sammy is not a very responsible cashier as he gets caught off guard when he sees a few girls entering the store. Because of this distraction, the customer who is at the counter starts throwing a fit simply because he rang up the same object twice. Immediately the reader catches a glimpse of the inner personality of Sammy. He picked out everything wrong with this witch in order to block his anger. After this encounter, we all know that Sammy is a little critical in the way he views people. Sammy watches the girls as they stroll around the store in awe of their imperfections. His hypocritical notion of these non-perfect girls is...