ool and the rest, but he doesn't miss that much. (489) However, when the girls were embarrassed by Lengel Sammy's personality changed. He stood up to his manager and quit his job. This is demonstrated in the dialogue between Sammy and Lengel which states:The girls, and who'd blame them are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit"...."‘Did you say something, Sammy?""I said I quit.""I thought you did.""You didn't have to embarrass them."(490)This dialogue between the two characters exhibits Sammy standing up to authority. He no longer wanted to witness this kind of behavior. Consequently, he had to quit his job. Initially, Sammy was behaving in this manner to impress the females so that it was "quick enough for them to hear" because he was "hoping they'll stop and watch" since he wanted to be " their unsuspected hero"(490). Upon doing so, the girls departed from the grocery store. However, he continues to quit his job because "remembering how he made the pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside I punch the No Sale tab" (491). This passage shows that he truly believed in quitting his job, not just to impress the girls but for the way it made him feel when those girls were embarrassed. As a result, Sammy came to the realization of what kind of a world would be out there for him. He had to choose his own direction from now on. This is shown when Sammy states, "His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just been injected by iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter" (491). In this passage, Sammy is describing his manager as cold and upright and while he is looking at Lengel he finishes evolving into the "new" Sammy. This is when he has the realization that life is not as easy and aimless as "checking the sheep through"(491) has finally reached him. "A&P" is an initiation story. This is reflected through the character, Sammy. As a cashier in a grocery st...
