through his use of similes. In one instance, he states, "There was nothing between the top of the .
suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down .
from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light" (13). In an attempt to be .
poetic, Sammy reveals his background through this crude comparison of Queenie's chest to a .
dented sheet of metal. .
The sexual imagery in the story also serves to further reveal Sammy's character (Peck). .
After Queenie pulls the money out of her bathing suit, Sammy narrates, "I uncrease the bill, .
tenderly as you may imagine, it just having come from between the two smoothest scoops of .
vanilla I had ever known were there" (Updike 16). Through his constant descriptions of the girls' .
bodies, Updike portrays Sammy as an average teenage boy with sexual inclinations (Shaw 326). .
Any fantasies that Sammy may have are cut short when Lengel appears to confront the girls .
about their dress code. In this scene, Sammy directly reveals his background and characterizes .
himself when he fantasizes:.
All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other .
men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in .
sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all .
holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my .
parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall .
glasses with "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoons stencilled on (Updike 15).
As a result, Sammy appears as a rebel who in an attempt to be heroic, jeopardizes the rest of his .
life by quitting. He now belongs neither to the world of Lengel and his parents nor to the world .
of the socially elite that the girls represent (Peck).
Additionally, Updike uses irony to portray Sammy's character. At the end of the story,.