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¶ … Characters in American Fiction
Two terms used that are to describe characters are static and dynamic, which mean rarely or never changing, and constantly changing, respectively. This paper provides an analysis of the characters of Sammy in the short story "A&P" by John Updike and Louise Mallard in the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin to determine whether these characters are static or dynamic. Drawing on supportive quotations from the two short stories, a discussion concerning who the person is at the start and end of the story is followed by an analysis of whether constant changes were a good thing for the dynamic character. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning these issues are provided in the conclusion.
Review and Analysis
"Sammy" in John Updike's "A&P"
This short story is set in the early 1960s in a small town somewhere north of Boston (Saldivar 215). In his youthful zeal to prove himself virtuous and worthy of admiration of respect, the story's protagonist, Sammy, a cashier at the local...
"We want you decently dressed when you come in here"). Perhaps the straw that broke Sammy's back in this exchange was the fact that Lengel would not let the issue drop and allowed a crowd to gather to further humiliate his young customers.
The flood of thoughts that compelled Sammy to make this fateful decision was not fast enough, though, for Sammy to have his momentous sacrifice even noticed by the three girls who had completed their purchase and already left. In this regard, Updike writes: "The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say 'I quit' to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero." Alas, despite Sammy's envisioned new status as a hero to females everywhere and especially the one "in the plaid green two-piece, a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her leg." Despite his attempt to make a loud enough display of his resignation for the benefit of the offended young girls, his efforts backfired and Sammy was left with a tough decision. According to Updike, the girls did not hear Sammy and kept "right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony-Goony (not that as raw material she was so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow."
Because the American psyche is wracked with competitiveness, integrity, hard work and "following through" (after all, only a spineless weakling goes back on his word),…
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. (1894). "The Story of an Hour." Virginia Commonwealth University [online]
available: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/.
Saldivar, Toni. (1997, Spring). "The Art of John Updike's 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction
34(2): 215-217.
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