Stepping Away From the Herd

What would make a teenager who is completely comfortable in the midst of the herd of his fellow man decide to step away from it? In John Updike’s short story “A&P”, the 19 year-old checkout clerk named Sammy stepped out of the herd by quitting his job. What drove him to make this life changing decision? Sammy lives with his parents and he is friends with the fellow at the next register. He lives in a little respectable town. Sammy looks down on all people and speaks of them as farm animals. Until the day he met his Queenie, Sammy never did anything to separate himself from the herd. In fact he did not realize he was part of herd till he met her. Sammy moved from inside the herd to outside the herd because he was confronted with a situation where a choice had to made.  Sammy could show Lengel, his boss, that the girls should be treated better or he could ignore it and continue to be part of the herd.

  Sammy spends his time watching and analyzing people who shop at the A&P and those he sees on the street.  Not only does Sammy analyze them but he also categorizes them. When he uses the words “She is one of those cash-register-watchers” in his description of the “old witch about fifty” we can see that he has seen others in her category (par.1). Sammy categorizes the housewives as “house-slaves.”  Sammy calls the men tearing up the street to fix the sewer “free-loaders.”  There is a general category that the shoppers fit into of “sheep” or even “pigs.”  When the three girls in bathing suites walk into the A&P, he already knows the category for each. Sammy first sees the chunky kid.  Sammy sees the “one that girls think is ‘quite striking’ and ‘attractive’ but never quite makes it” (par. 2).  He sees the third and calls her a queen.

Sammy believes he is better than other people by the way he describes them. Every description mentioned above, except the one of Queenie, is derogatory. Besides putting his subjects into categories he also describes several attributes of the humans he knows. Sammy noted McMahon’s, the meat counter attendant, starring at the girls; Sammy calls McMahon and the other men in the store “kids” saying he feels sorry for them since they are unable to control their eyes. Sammy also mocks his coworker Stokesie when he says that Stokesie “thinks he's going to be manager some sunny day, maybe in 1990 when it's called the Great Alexandrov and Petrooshki Tea Company or something” (par. 8).

His derogatory attitude is also for authority figures, which is most obvious in his description of the manager Lengel. “Lengel’s pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn’t miss that much” (par. 12).  We can hear the sarcasm in Sammy’s tone when he says, “he does not miss that much.” The girls are the center of attention, and the entire store is watching them. The fact that Lengel was scuttling away when he notices them shows that he only is noting the obvious. Lengel also does not listen to the girls, but keeps repeating the same statement. We have a description of an authority figure that does not notice things, does not listen, and hides in his office.

Even though Sammy has this derogatory view of all those around him he does nothing to distinguish himself from them. Sammy allows himself to be part of the herd even as he observes the herd. But it all changes during his encounter with an equal.  When Queenie walks in he sees, for the first time, a person who also knows she is superior to those around her. Unlike Sammy, she shows it. Sammy has been content to be an observer. Sammy watches Queenie walk up and down the aisles of the A&P leading her goonies. He watches how the other people react to her. How do they react? They change their behavior.  They are rattled.  Queenie has an effect on them. When someone steps out of the herd, people around them get disturbed.  Sammy feels the same superiority that Queenie feels, but he has no effect on those around him.  They do not change their behavior because he is still acting as part of the herd.

In the end of the story, we watch the argument between the girls and Lengel.  Lengel goes up to the girls and tells them they need to dress decently. At first Queenie is shy, but then she remembers her superiority.

“’We are decent,’ Queenie says suddenly, her lower lip pushing, getting sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy. Fancy Herring Snacks flashed in her very blue eyes”  (par. 17).

Sammy respects this rebellion against authority and realizes that he himself does not rebel. He realizes that he is part of the herd. He is a conformist to the standards that Lengel holds, even though he secretly does not agree with them.  This makes him no different than many of the people he looks down on. Lengel insulted the girls and caused a scene that embarrassed them. Sammy believes the scene was unnecessary, decides to step away from the herd, tells Lengel that he was wrong to embarrass them, and shows how serious he is by quitting. 

"Did you say something, Sammy?"

"I said I quit."

"I thought you did."

"You didn't have to embarrass them."

"It was they who were embarrassing us."

(par. 21)

Lengel here is ready to accept that Sammy misspoke and that is still a conformist and will go back to his place.  But Sammy goes through with his decision and walks out of the store and out of the herd.

Sammy, the conformist teenager, the happy herd watcher, changes when he is confronted with Queenie who does not conform to the herd but marches outside the herd on her own.  Sammy first realizes that he is still part of the herd, then he changes because his principles force him to take a visible step away from the herd and step into his own path.