Devil's in the Details...

 There is a study sheet for this story posted to Blackboard. Please review it; also, review my comments on the "English 40" and "English" blogs under "Blogs from Previous Classes" to the right (3rd set from bottom of list; my comments also included below). Be careful avoid taking this story at face value--i.e., as simply about a kid trying to kill time at a boring job; this won't get you very far and won't pay off in terms of reader satisfaction. The real interest is in the patterns of imagery and symbols, which add depth to the conflict. This, like all good works of literature, is worth the time and effort put into reading it--in fact, its value increases in proportion to the time invested in it.

See the study sheet posted to BB for this story for specific suggestions.

Don't bet on the stock market--reading and creativity are the only constant investments...

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My comments from "English 40" blog:

The A & P, and the close "reading" of it Sammy does--i.e., his detailed description of it--suggest it is important to him. It can be seen as a microcosm for larger socio-cultural conditions, and Sammy's critical view of them, as well as class conflicts--think of the description of customers, the store itself--the lighting, flooring, how people move in the stores and behave; what the girls' naked feet touch, and what they're prevented from "actually" touching by what they touch; think about the "aisles"--not just the idea about motion through aisles (what sort of motion do they mandate?), but what's "for sale" in them; think about the different types/images of "eyes" involved in the story; think about Sammy's class fantasy of Queenie, and how this comments on his own socio-cultural and class condition vis a vis (imagined) others' Think about the town itself in which the store is embedded (the metaphor of a box in a box comes to mind...and there are plenty of other "boxes" to consider, esp. in a grocery store, after all...). Consider Sammy's description of his checkout station (think about the term he uses to describe it) and the sounds of the cash register. Yes, the description of the girls does contrast in many ways with the immediate setting of the store--it's not, then, that the girls themselves are so important to him, but what the represent for Sammy; just as when he says "I quit," it's not just his job that he's thinking of...

In any case, almost every observation Sammy makes can be taken on both literal and symbolic levels.

From "English":

Yes, the store goes on "functioning as usual," and this does seem to comment on Sammy's actions, leaving us with a question. Should we just chalk it up to his youth? Hmmm... think about how this story might foreshadow events in America and Europe in the mid-late 1960s, and whether or not these (primarily youthful) rebellions shared a similar fate....

Again, here, as in all stories,the story exists on both literal and symbolic levels. Details of Sammy's observations articulate his attitude and conflict; they become an indictment of working class, consumer culture, but also implicate him in it. The out-of-context appearance of the girls play a role in Sammy's internal drama, bringing to the fore his discontentment with his own position in the status quo, of which he remains, perhaps inevitably, a member, a "cog"in the machine of the class he criticizes, and is acutely, painfully aware of this in the end. Sammy imaginatively "casts" (not all the girls, it should be noted, though by implication they are all part of the same "class" Sammy imaginatively reconstructs--it's just that the others don't fit the part) Queenie--in an idealized fantasy of upper class lifestyle, a scenario that contrasts with his own socio-economic position, and is subtly aware of his own "role playing" and "typecasting," in the end (particular observation he makes when he actually gets close to the foil character in his internal drama--the more "real" she becomes--begin to  dispel the illusion--consider his comments on the sound of her voice).  Sammy's "class consciousness," his critical awareness of the mindless, mechanized, dehumanized, routinized, robotic class of which he is a part is relevant, as is his implicit realization of the mutual exclusivity of upper and lower classes, but his self-realization is crucial.  How do we know all this? the details tell us... the job of the essay?--show us....