Sammy's Sacrifice

Sammy’s Sacrifice John Updike’s often-anthologized story, “A&P” shows us the heroic choice of a young adult who decides to follow principle rather than his own self-interest. The nineteen year old narrator works at the local A&P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company) in a middle class neighborhood, and he is led to quit his job as a pretest against a perceived insult to a young woman he admires. This dramatic gesture is …

…but they’re gone, of course.”(884)). Now Sammy has only gained insight about how hard it will be if he chooses to maintain a moral stand in a world driven by the profit motive. Clearly, both the character of the narrator and the world in which he lives place constraints upon his decision. The story serves to highlight the ongoing conflict between money and morals that is at the heart of so much American literature.