Hidden Class Struggle in Updike's A&PTwo Works Cited In "A&P" by John Updike, Sammy is accused of quitting his job for childish and immature reasons. Nathan Hatcher states, "In reality, Sammy quit his job not as a matter of ideals, but rather to show off and try to impress girls, especially Queenie" (37), but Sammy's motivations run much deeper of those. He sought a sense of gain and personal satisfaction. Taking the girls' side, he momentarily rises in class to meet their standards and those of the upper class. Sammy was obviously near the bottom of the class ladder, a place where he was extremely unhappy. His dead-end job at the supermarket, where lower-class citizens are the main customers, was not a place where he felt he belonged. He wanted to be a member of the family where "the father and the other men stood around in ice cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals and picked herring snacks with toothpicks from a big glass dish and everyone held drinks in their hands color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in it" (Updike 1028). Sammy realizes that Queenie comes from this kind of background, very different from hers. When Queenie is harassed by Lengel, Sammy sees that she "remembers her place, a place from which the mob running the A&P must look pretty cheap" (Updike 1028). Queenie's family belonged to the class she envied, admired, wanted to be part of. So Sammy quits his job to prove to himself, perhaps to others, that he belongs here. Leaving your job is the first step to achieving this goal. Sammy was obviously fascinated by the girls from the moment they entered the A&P. He didn't like the other two girls, but Queenie overwhelmed him. He may have taken a liking to Queenie, but any average nineteen year old male would do the same after witnessing the astonishing beauty as she is described. On the other hand, the average man wouldn't leave a job causing so much confusion if first impressions were the only cause. How interested might he actually be? In an attempt to understand Queenie's personality, he asks, "do you really think there's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?"?