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Updyke A&P Sammy quits his job because of the way his boss treats a particular group of customers. Do you fee Sammy made the right decision? Why or why not?
In my opinion Sammy made the right decision. In the story Sammy is a cashier who is watching as three young girls in bikinis enter the store to shop. The girls while not dressed properly for the store in the 1960’s are doing nothing wrong. They are not being obnoxious or rude. In fact, the only people that could be considered rude are the male workers that are watching them a bit too intently. In fact, the butcher who is much older than the girls are, is making Sammy uncomfortable with the way he is watching them. However, none of the workers act inappropriately to them.
As the girls are checking out the manager comes out and embarrasses them by rebuking them for wearing swim suits in the store “making the pretty girl blush” (Updyke). Sammy quits because of this. Sammy in quitting showed that he had integrity. There was no reason for the manager to come out of his office just to embarrass the girls. They were leaving, if he truly had an issue with how they were dressed there should have been a sign on the door saying that people were not permitted inside wearing just their bikini or he could have come out when he saw them walk in and politely and discreetly requested that they go outside and put something on over their suits before returning to the store.
In the story part of the reason that Sammy reacted the way that he did was because he was trying to impress them. There was a part that wanted them to notice what he had done, to hail him a hero and invite him to go along with him. The girls did not notice his actions and were gone before he got out to the parking lot. So it seems as though Sammy is a double loser. He did not get a chance to impress the girls, and Mr. Lenger gave him the job because he was friends with Sammy’s parents. This means that there is going to be gossip spread about Sammy’s behavior and others are going to be reluctant to hire him. This is something that he realizes when his “stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (Updyke) Nevertheless, Sammy did the right thing no matter his motivation.
This is because it is important to take a stand when a person sees something that is not right.
Now it can be argued that Sammy only did what he did because he had a small crush on Queenie the leader of the girls and that it was stupid of him to quit his job over someone he did not know, especially when he only got it because of his parents in the first place. This is true to a point, sometimes it is more important to do the right thing then it is to the best thing. The manager showed that he was misogynistic and unprofessional at the least. There was no reason for Sammy to continue working for someone like that. Plus, in Sammy’s case his actions which are almost without thought seem to be a result of him not liking what he had just witnessed more than the fact that he hoped to get something out of it. This shows that despite Sammy’s running commentary in his head that he did what he thought was right. Which in my opinion is far more important and respectable then doing things that one does not agree with for money or working for people who have values that you find deplorable.
