A&P Characters

Sammy, the 19-year-old narrator of "A&P," is a cashier in an A&P grocery store in a small Massachusetts town. The story he tells takes place on a Thursday afternoon in the summer. "A&P"...

Queenie isn't really this girl's name. We don't know her name or much about her at all. We see her only briefly while she's in the A&P, in her bathing suit, shopping for herring snacks and pull...

This is the first girl Sammy notices. He has both flattering and unflattering thoughts about her, some of which might strike readers as cruel. But don't we all think such thoughts in our heads? Sam...

This bathing-suit-wearing girl gets a raw deal. Sammy doesn't find her attractive, and she doesn't get so much as a single line of dialogue. What's worse, Sammy gives her a horrid nickname, which y...

Stokesie (or just Stokes) is Sammy's 22-year-old married coworker. He has two kids and hopes to be manager of the A&P one day. Updike says he is a man who has "acquired the dignity of his last...

Lengel is the stuffy manager of the A&P. He's also a local Sunday school teacher. He is the story's villain, the guy who embarrasses the girls and threatens Sammy with a horrible future. Lengel...

McMahon is the butcher. He gives girls directions to the herring snacks and then ogles them. His ogling strikes Sammy as somewhat sinister and marks the story's turning point from lightheartedness...