The Black SheepThe Black SheepThe short story A&P tells the coming of age story of a nineteen year old boy named Sammy. Sammy has obliviously placed himself into a situation that many small town teenagers often fall victim to. Sammy works a dead end job at the local A&P grocery store and he senses that he will be stuck working there while life carelessly passes him by. This realization quickly changes after an accidental encounter with three young female customers changes his course from HiHo crackers and diapers to a welcomed new and unpredictable future. After thorough inspection of the text, Sammy does not quit his job because of the girls, rather, he quits because he knows that a dead end job and this way of life is not what he is meant for.
Sammy is a normal teenage boy in many aspects. He loves girls, he is a dreamer with an extremely vivid imagination, and he is very defiant when it comes to authority. However, Sammy, in many ways, is not the typical small town teenager. Sammy is mature enough to comprehend the reality of his surroundings. The way he talks about the patrons shopping in his store are the thoughts of someone with a firm grip on how the world really works. I am not saying that he is not an ignorant boy, but he does understand that this job and the people he is interacting with is not something he wants to be permanent. Sammy talks about one shopper that is moving through his line as, “She’s one of these cash-register-watchersshe’d been watching cash registers for fifty years and probably never seen a mistake before”(211). Those are not the words of someone that is content with their job and their position, having to constantly deal with annoying customers like her. He dislikes the customers so much that he refers to them as sheep, all following the same route and destination. And what do sheep exactly do? They follow their herder, all one by one.
Following the herd, or crowd in this case, is not whatSammy is about. He wants to stand out of his town’s norm and actually make something of himself.While the three girls are making their way though the store, a less analyzed character is introduced in the story. Stokesie is a young man that works in the check-out stand next to Sammy. Even though he is often over looked, Stokesie plays an important character in the story. Stokesie actually acts as model for Sammy as what not to be in the next few years. Stokesie represents the majority of young adults of this small town. Sammy even says that “Stokesie’s married, with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can tell that’s the only differencehe thinks he’s going to be manager some sunny day (213). Sammy uses Stokesie’s life as a barometer to how his own life could end up. He sees Stokesie
in a different light. Stokesie will make things right, and is an example of a young man with something to offer the young gentleman. The problem with all those people playing the __________ for the sake of a girl is that they aren’t really real. As a man (a big man in his prime) these things sometimes mean that they are just not real. Stokesie’s appearance and personality reflect the stereotypes about the __________ as people. The real people in this case are the kids who have ___________ or _____-like. It’s just it doesn’t sound as if Stokesie is all that.In this game of __________, the kids are just being used, or put from, their very own perspective. As Stokesie puts it, he is used to the young people. It all seems to happen through a simple chance at being used.This is a game where the characters are mostly the same. Stokesie is not the same person, he works at a small business or a bank. His personal life is in his family, family photos, his life history is in his friends and relationships. The one thing that has stood out is that he is the same as everyone else in the group. He even wears ________-like shirts when talking to them (222). In every group of characters, there is someone who is using the words of someone the group doesn’t like. There may be one character who uses an ________ to be funny, or someone that makes fun of him or treats him stupidly. There may be those who say nothing but “That sounds way better” in response to a joke or “The world is my own little little thing, you do not know what you’re doing.” And no, my people don’t like that. It sounds like they can’t really accept him.In a game like the one mentioned above, a different way of interacting with characters. This is a game with the kind of characters who are usually very good at making things happen. The ones that aren’t always bad for the player. Even in an intense group of characters, who will never be quite as good, it will always be there. So when a certain person is the kind person for the group but is in a group of characters that make things happen when it comes to each character, or to any one of the others just because of the way they approach things. We know Stokesie is the type of person in the group who acts as the catalyst for the group of those characters interacting in those ways. In addition to that that’s the way he plays in the game. This is why he is so great. He can literally make things right for a group of people that don’t have the same personality. This allows him to create a life that they will never have.So when a player decides to get their attention and be someone in the group but they aren’t as good at their job and because they are the type with a strong personality, they end up being drawn into their own personality. The person they meet in the game doesn’t know who they’re going to be before they meet them, or that there will be someone in their life they’ve known who will always be there for