John Updike writes a short story "A&P" which is narrated by a 19 year old cashier that works in a local grocery store. Sammy is very uninterested in his job as checkout clerk; he is more focused on the people who come in and out than his main task at hand. Through Sammy's observations of the three girls and other customers it gives the reader a better understanding of Sammy's characteristics. Sammy is a daydreamer, lustful & bold. This story represents a coming-of-age for Sammy. Even though it takes place over the period of a few minutes, it represents a much larger aspect of the maturity process. From the time the girls enter the grocery store, to the moment they leave, one can see changes in Sammy's personality as well as his thought process.
Sammy displays that he is daydreamer in the beginning, when the three girls first walk into the store. "I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not." He was so focused on the girls entering the store totally disregarded what he was ringing up. Sammy seems to be focused on everything but he's actually supposed to be doing. He goes on by saying he watched the girls in the meat aisle "I watched them all the way." You can imagine him looking at their backsides while the girls were walking down the aisle. Once again, he's not focused on what he's supposed to be doing. .
Sammy is in his teenage years where he can't really control his hormones or thoughts. . At first, he sees only the physicality of the girls: how they look and what they are wearing, seem to be his only observations. "In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits." Noticing nothing else about them. While there walking by he describes something by each girl, one had "lips all bunched together under her nose " "these long white prima donna legs." He looks deeply at each characteristic of the girls. You can tell that he like what he sees in Queenie.