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Sammy
Queenie is the leader of the group of three girls who walk into the store in their bathing suits. Unlike the others, Queenie is unabashed and self-assured, walking deliberately through the store in a suit with her straps down. Sammy, our narrator, describes the sight of her as "more than pretty." When Lengel reprimands her for wearing just a bathing suit into the store, however, her self-confidence wavers slightly, and her response—that she's getting herring snacks for her mother—reveals her youth. It's also clear to Sammy that Queenie belongs to a higher socioeconomic class than he does, as he imagines the type of gathering her parents might have put together and contrasts it with the sorts of get-togethers his own parents have.
Queenie Quotes in A&P
The A&P quotes below are all either spoken by Queenie or refer to Queenie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A&P Quotes
You never know for sure how girls' minds work (do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?) but you got the idea she had talked the other two into coming in here with her, and now she was showing them how to do it, walk slow and hold yourself straight.
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This is another example of Sammy's tendency to project personalities or motivations onto complete strangers, which shows a lack of humility and empathy. In fact, his only moment of uncertainty about the girls' characters (when he states that he does not understand how girls' minds work and then questions whether they have minds at all) betrays a dehumanizing sexism in Sammy. His description of the girls' bodies (which occupies him for the bulk of the story) combined with this offhand remark suggesting the girls lack intellect and complexity shows that he views them as objects, and that he does not Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis conse
She must have felt in the corner of her eye me and over my shoulder Stokesie in the second slot watching, but she didn't tip. Not this queen. She kept her eyes moving across the racks, and stopped, and turned so slow it made my stomach rub the inside of my apron…
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This part of the story shows the odd power struggle that Sammy perceives regarding the girls walking around the store in their bathing suits. Sammy has some understanding that ogling them is a way for him to assert power over them, and he also understands that the girls pretending not to notice is a way for them to reclaim some of that power. Instead of viewing this as a serious contest for respect and dignity, though, he sees it as a sort of sexual game in which the girls' leader is further seducing him by refusing to acknowledge his bad Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaeca
The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle—the girls were walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)—were pretty hilarious.
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This passage shows that Sammy views his blatant ogling of the girls as authentic action, in contrast to the boring and contemptible following of social norms that the other people at the grocery store perform. Sammy seems to relish his disrespectful behavior because he sees it as a kind of rebellion against stifling and boring aspects of society. In this passage, Sammy is mocking the people around him for pretending not to notice the girls. He contrasts this behavior with the behavior of the girls, who are wearing the wrong thing and walking the wrong way, and with his own Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum volu
All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints. Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn't help it.
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In this passage Sammy is startled by seeing the butcher, who is an older man Sammy seems not to respect, engaging in the same ogling that Sammy and Stokesie have just been doing. While Sammy lacks the self-awareness to feel ashamed of his own behavior after feeling disgusted at McMahon's behavior, his disgust does open him up, for the first time, to feeling empathy towards the girls. Seeing McMahon eye them makes Sammy realize that there is probably something gross about being eyed by older men at the supermarket. Tellingly, for the first time he refers to the girls as Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt
"My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks." […]All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoons stenciled on.
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In this moment, Sammy is beginning to realize how much more complex these girls are than he imagined. For one, he realizes their upper-class status and imagines the differences between their experiences and his own. While he is still projecting his imagination onto them, it is at least a more nuanced projection that acknowledges that they have lives to which he can't quite relate. In this interaction, Sammy also relays being startled by the girl's actual voice, since it is not like what he imagined. Throughout the story he has imagined this girl as somebody confidently exercising her power over Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi
"We are decent," Queenie says suddenly, her lower lip pushing, getting sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy. Fancy Herring Snacks flashed in her very blue eyes.
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Queenie has now publicly gone from exuding confidence, to faltering, to seeming embarrassed, to seeming indignant about the way she is being treated. When the manager tells her she needs to dress decently (as in, she needs to be sufficiently clothed) she seems to take it as an attack on her status and personhood, as her response is a defense that she is, in fact, a decent person. Sammy, meanwhile, assumes (correctly or incorrectly, we can never know) that Queenie's reaction is based on her feeling that, because of her class, she should not be talked down to by the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde
"Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy."
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In this passage, Lengel is changing tactics in his confrontation with the girls, which reveals his own confusion about his values and motivations. While his first attempt to chastise the girls rested on his moral conviction that the girls should be decently clothed in public, here he pivots and claims that he is merely enforcing store policy. This appears to occur in reaction to the girls' embarrassment, which may have left Lengel conflicted about whether or not he still had the moral high ground—but also in response to Queenie's indignation, which suggests that she comes from a place of privilege Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti s
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. They keep right on going, into the electric eye […]
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This is the climax of the story, in which Sammy, moved by the interaction he has just witnessed, impulsively quits his job. In keeping with his youthful lust, his initial motivation for quitting seems to be to impress the girls, but he frames it to himself as solidarity, in that he feels he is quitting to protest their poor treatment. This is obviously a muddled chain of logic, since his attempt to stand up for their dignity is conflated with his sexual desire and longing to impress them. It also seems that Sammy's motivation is partly personal, in that, by Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum d
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Queenie Character Timeline in A&P
The timeline below shows where the character Queenie appears in A&P. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A&P
...around the corner. As they appear with lead girl, whom Sammy now refers to as Queenie, still leading the way, she chooses between Sammy's and Stokesie's registers, but an elderly customer...
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...and catches sight of the girls. He reprimands them, announcing that "this isn't the beach." Queenie blushes and explains that her mother told her to buy herring snacks, which immediately sets...
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...focus on the girls, saying that they must be "decently dressed" before entering the store. Queenie, suddenly regaining her sense of place in relation to the store workers, replies that they...
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...true, but he continues to go through with quitting when he remembers how Lengel made Queenie blush.
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