In his article "Updike's A&P," Corey Evan Thompson argues that the narrator and main character Sammy is not a hero for standing up for the young girls but a young man frustrated with his job. Thompson (2001, p. 215) points out that Sammy must deal with annoying customers that he refers to as "'witches,' 'bums,' and 'sheep.'" Thompson (2001, p. 215) states of Sammy that "He suggests that he has been thinking about quitting for at least a few months" and notes that Sammy has worked at the grocery for so long that he even describes the girls in terms of products that are sold at the store.
Thompson's (2001, p. 216) points are well taken. It is obvious that Sammy is indeed bored and frustrated with his job. His describing the girls' body parts using terms related to grocery store products such as "a soft looking can" and "the two smoothest scoops of vanilla"(indicates that Sammy's frame of reference in all issues is the grocery store.
Sammy has also been spending "all [his] time thinking," and Thompson (2001, p. 216) assumes that "he has begun to realize that the incident offers him the perfect opportunity to free himself from his dead-end job." Here, however, Thompson is over-reaching. Sammy has been working at the grocery for so long that he sees the world in its terms; this is not typical of someone trying to avoid responsibility. In fact, Sammy has persisted in spite of the boredom and annoying customers for all those years. He admits to the truth in Lengel's warnings and says, "my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter"(not a statement of someone going from bondage to freedom (Updike, n.d.). In the last analysis, Sammy is indeed a hero who sacrifices his future for the girls even though they are already gone and will probably never even have a chance to say "Thank you."
In "Mason's Shiloh," critics Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet (2001, p. 52) argue...