In John Updike's "A&P," Sammy is a grocery store clerk that is bored with his life. His routine continues until three girls come into the store and cause him to change. Their carefree attitude and attire disrupt the organization and rules of the store. The setting reveals Sammy's life and attitude towards it and how the disruption caused by the girls in the store, mirrors the effect it has on Sammy and pushes him to move forward in his growth towards manhood. .
Sammy's identity is established by the setting before the girls even come into the store. It seems as though Sammy lives in a cycle that he has lived in his whole life. His mother stitched his name onto the apron he wears, and his outfit includes a bow tie, and the innocence of a white collared shirt that his mother had ironed for him the night before. Sammy seems dependent on his parents for essentially everything and has never really gone into the world outside of his daily life. His sheltered, routine life has required him to take no major risks. Everything that he does is based on something that somebody else has told him to do, not what he feels is right. Lengel tells him to stay in his slot and check out the customers, his parents want him to work at the A&P, and his life is controlled by decisions made by others. Although he sees the customers as "sheep" and thinks that they are like drones in the store, he follows the same regiment as those he criticizes. His attitude towards most of his environment is that everything is boring and follows all the rules. In the structure of the store, customers only go one way down the aisles, and everybody follows the unwritten rules of the A&P. The store is organized with everything in a certain way and is predictable in most aspects. This mirrors Sammy's lifestyle because like the grocery store, his life is predictable and orderly before the girls arrive. .
Sammy's growth is reflected through the setting when the girls come into the store, dumbfounding him and disturbing the order in his life.
