In the story "A & P, written by John Updike, the main character is a nineteen year old grocery checker. The story takes place in an A & P grocery store, north of Boston, five miles from the beach. Where most people were the regular customers, with several kids or old ladies that were called cash register watchers. Sammy comes from a middle class family. Sammy character undergoes changes, from a lusting, sexist nineteen-year-old boy to a man that takes a stand on principles, which is shown though his actions and words.
At the beginning of story "A&P", Sammy notices that three girls have proceeded into the store with nothing on except for there bathing suits. When they get into his sight, he begins to size the girls up. He watches as the girls walk around the store and states "the one that caught my eye first was the one in the green plaid two-piece. She was a chunky kid with a good tan and a broad soft-looking can with those crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the tops of the backs of her legs." Then there is on he really notices well because he thinks she really pretty. Sammy describes her as "She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn't look around, not this queen; she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prim-donna legs. She came down a little hard on her heels, as if she didn't walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along to her toes as if she was testing the floor with every step, putting a little deliberate extra action into it." Sammy seems as if he could be a sexist when he remarks, "You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar) but you got the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and now she was showing them how to do it, walk slow and hold yourself straight.