Character can be defined as the combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. Authors usually embrace a distinct choice of personality on a character to make them stand out in a story. In “A & P” by John Updike, Sammy starts off as a young man discontent with his ordinary adult surroundings and moves to his need to change it. Throughout the story, Sammy describes and interprets the scenes around him, consequently revealing his own character, by which can be related through the use of Thomas Chou’s Ennegram, to distinguish his personality type.
John Updike gives the reader an inside look into the adolescent mind of Sammy, which give the reader a better understanding of his personality. All of these literary devices enhance the meanings of the story’s symbols as the boy’s personality and view of his world move from content, to admiration, to resignation. Sammy, the first person narrator, plays an essential role in portraying an in depth viewpoint of the story. His portrayal of a typical teen working in a dead-end job, his thoughts and feelings are very obvious in the story “A & P. ”
Thomas Chou’s use of Ennegram gives nine personality types to distinguish what type each person is. The Enneagram is one of the newest personality systems to become widely used, and is best known for its ability to identify psychological motivations. The Ennegram provide insights into how other people see the world differently, and it has become particularly popular within the self-help and personal growth movements. The nine types of Ennagram given by Chou are: reformers, helpers, motivators, romantics, thinkers, loyalists, enthusiasts, controllers, and mediators.
Each of the nine types of Ennagram shapes the personality of each individual. Sammy is considered to be a romantic because of his active imaginations, creative intuition, and wicked sense of humor. Romantics are “extremely self-aware people” (Chou), which in the case of Sammy, he is very aware of his surroundings. Sammy addressed the people from the A & P store as “the sheep pushing their carts down the aisle” (607) shows the active imaginations that fours (romantics) often have. There are some advantages and disadvantages of being a four.
The benefit of a romantic personality is that they have ability to find meanings in life and to experience feelings at a deep level, they are also unique and often seen as unique by others, and romantics can be a very supportive friend or partner. Sammy showed his attributes of being a romantic by standing up the girls whom he secretly idolized. Sammy stood up for the girls when Lengel, his manager, embarrassed the girls by disapproving of their scandally clad bathing suits publicly.
According to Chou’s Ennegram, fours combine emotional intensity, sensitivity, and intuition all in one. It also states that fours don’t settle for the ordinary or shallow, and are disturbed that most people around them do. This would describe exactly what Sammy’s character is portrayed in “A & P” because he hated the fact that his life is so dreary and dull. His reaction to the conflict between the three attractive girls and the manager of the store reflects his responsiveness to change.
Sammy also indicated that he didn’t want to end up like Stokesie, who was married with two kids, and will probably work in the store for the rest of his life in order to support his family. Stokesie suggests what Sammy might become if he were to continue to work at the A&P. For this, Sammy is adapted to a change in his life by resigning as a cashier at A & P. Towards the end of the story when he announces that he is quitting, he goes on to say “a couple customers that had been heading for my slot begin to knock against each other, like scared pigs in a chute”(610).
While he sees himself as being a risk taker, he also sees the customers as afraid of confrontation, thereby widening the gap between them. Sammy can’t seem to relate to the customers in any way and thereby shows how his character sees himself as a younger and much more exciting type. The emotional awareness that Sammy has toward the customers at the store, the three girls, and his future, shows Sammy as a character who takes risks and not afraid to speak his mind. Chou stated: “fours often bring their emotional intensity to their relationships, often with dramatic results.
Sammy seems as though he is feeling discontent with his surroundings but is unable to do anything about it, where as the girls are unknowingly doing it for him. When his manager says that he “will feel this for the rest of (his) life”, he recalls that although that is true, it is worth it when he thinks of how when “that pretty girl blushed” made him “so crunchy inside”. The characters create the setting, and the insight into young Sammy’s mind leads us to see it through his eyes. Sammy’s character can be seen through his interpretation of the customers, his manager, and the young girls visiting the store.
First, Sammy interprets the customers as being old, dull and unable to relate to young people. The first customer he comes across he describes as a “witch about fifty” and a “cash register watcher”. He even notes that it makes her day to see him trip up. It is at this point that he begins to make it evident that he doesn’t particularly care for the customers. This shows that romantics often seek out an unusually wide range of human emotions, and in this sense, Sammy probably experienced what it means to be human in a broader range than most.
Sammy seeks out the weakness in people and judged them in his mind shows he has the desire for unusual and intense emotions, sometimes with a devilishly sharp wit. While fours are often thought to also be risk-takers, they are also responsible for their actions. Sammy shows his sensitive side because he seemed to feel upset by the way that Lengel spoke to the girls and embarrassed them. When Lengel mentions that the policy of the A&P is to have one’s shoulders covered while shopping, Sammy notes “Policy is what the kingpins want.
What the others want is juvenile delinquency”(609); the others being himself. Fours usually show that they have a sensitive side but in a mysterious way. They also “succumb to reckless impulses… which may produce despair” showed that Sammy acted on impulse when he quit, but somehow, he might regret his action later on in life. Everyone has a distinct personality type, and through Updike’s description of Sammy, it showed he is more related to being a romantic than any other type of the nine personalities. Sammy in “A & P” has a mysterious side and yet sensitive side to him.
Sammy also showed his flamboyant way of thinking and his wild and wicked imaginations. A personality can shape the way you think and what you do. In Sammy’s case, through his way of thinking, showed us that he is a character full of imaginations and a distressed on life. He also showed his emotional side without getting overly sensitive and not wanting others to notice he has a weak side to him; this is usually the case of a romantic personality. As stated by Chou: “fours (are) sensitive to emotional pain… (and) they share a need for intensity. “
