A And P By Updike Essays - AP, , Term Papers

A And P By Updike In the story "A&P," by John Updike, the main character Sammy makes the leap from an adolescent, knowing little more about life than what he has learned working at the local grocery store, into a man prepared for the rough road that lies ahead. As the story begins, Sammy is nineteen and has no real grasp for the fact that he is about to be living on his own working to support himself. Throughout the course of the story, he changes with a definite step into, first, a young man realizing that he must get out of the hole he is in and further into a man, who has a grasp on reality looking forward to starting his own family. In the beginning, Sammy is but a youth growing up learning what he knows about life in small town grocery store. His role models include, Stokesie, the twenty-two year-old, supporting a family doing the same job Sammy does yet aspiring to one day have the manager's position, and Lengel, the store manager who most certainly started out in the same place that Stokesie and he were already in. Stoksie, the great role model, continues to be as adolescent as Sammy, with his "Oh, Daddy, I feel so faint," and even Sammy sees this noting that "as far as I can tell that's the only difference (between he and I)." Sammy whittles away his days looking at pretty girls and thinking about the ways of people. He hardly realizes that this is how he will spend his entire existence if he doesn't soon get out of this job. During this day that will prove to change his life, he makes the step towards his realization. He decides that he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life working at an A&P competing for the store manager's position. Sammy thinks to himself about his parent's current social class and what they serve at cocktail parties. And, in turn, he thinks about what he will be serving, if he stays at the A&P, "When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with ?They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stenciled on." He must get out and the sooner the better. He is still just an adolescent who hasn't completely thought through his decision and yet his mind is made up. He quits his job using the girls merely as an excuse to get out. His final journey to manhood is a short one. He looks around for his girls and notices that they have already left, but he knew that was a futile cause to begin with. And he steps outside to see the world and its opportunities as well as its responsibilities in front of him. Although, Sammy could see "how hard the world would be hereafter," he knew that what was done had to be done. In hindsight, Sammy still knew he had done the right thing as shown by "Now here comes the sad part of the story...but I don't think it's so sad myself."

Advancements essays

Advancements essays Some of the advancements made in technology during the 1790s started off when the industry could not be stimulated overnight, because it required technology and the willingness of businessmen to invest time and capital for the long term. In 1788, the Pennsylvania Society for the encouragement of Manufactures and the useful arts introduced spinning jennies to their textile factory in Philadelphia. The jennies threatened to displace home spinners by producing cheaper yarn and thread. Another brand new technology that appeared was in 1790, Samuel Slater brought a new phase in American cloth production by building a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, using water power to run the sinning machines. No satisfactory power loom existed, so Slaters mill performed only the first two steps of cloth production (preparing the cloth fibers for spinning, and spinning the thread.) He then used the putting-out system of distributing the thread to families, who produced the cloth at home. One more person who made an impact on the advancement of technology in the 1790s was Oliver Evans. He apprenticed as a wagon maker and became intrigued with machines. Evans heard that the Scottish inventor James Watt improved the steam engine a few years earlier. Evans began building his own model but for lack of money, thirty years passed before he actually installed a high pressure steam engine in his gypsum fertilizer factory in Philadelphia. This was the first such application of steam power to an industrial setting. Evans also developed the idea of automating mills. He devised water powered machinery for large grist mills that allowed one worker instead of three to supervise all the steps of producing flour. ...