The Hidden Class Struggle in Updike's A&PTwo works cited in John Updike's "A&P", Sammy is accused of leaving his job for childish reasons and immature. Nathan Hatcher states, "In reality, Sammy left his job not for reasons of ideals, but rather to show off and try to impress the girls, especially Queenie" (37), but Sammy's motivations are indeed deeper than that. He sought a sense of personal gain and satisfaction. By siding with the girls, he momentarily rises in class to meet their standards and those of the upper class. Sammy was obviously at the bottom of the class ladder, a place where he was extremely unhappy. His dead-end job at the grocery store, where lower-class citizens are the main customers, was not a place he felt he belonged. He wanted to be a family member where "the father and the other men were standing around in ice coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking snacks of herring on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they They all held drinks the 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 his own. When Queenie is harassed by Lengel, Sammy notes that "she remembers her place, a place from where the mob that runs the A&P must look pretty seedy" (Updike 1028). Queenie's family was part of the class he envied, admired, and wanted to be a part of. So Sammy quits his job to prove to himself, perhaps to others, that he belongs in this “place.” Quitting his job is his first step to achieving this goal. Sammy was visibly captivated 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 even taken a liking to Queenie, but any average nineteen-year-old man would do the same after witnessing a beauty as striking as the one described. On the other hand, the average man would not quit his job and create such trouble if first impression was the only cause. How interested could he really be? Trying to understand Queenie's character, he asks, "Do you really think it's a spirit in there or just a little buzzing like a bee in a glass jar?" ??