(A&P and Deaths of Distant Friends)

Analysis

Narrator tells of deaths of two people and one dog that he was friendly with before his divorce and during time when he was between marriages. He remembers that time as being disarray that preoccupied him completely. The first person who died was man named Len who he played golf with when he was married and after he'd left his wife. Len was cheerful Baptist who owned hardware store and narrator remembers golf games with him as being haven from women, stricken children, solemn lawyers, disapproving old acquaintances. (American Short Stories 23)

The second person who past away was an old spinster named Miss Amy Merrymount, who had taken narrator and his wife into her tea circle. She loved narrator's wife, who utilised to read to her. When narrator left his wife, Miss Merrymount said, "You have done dreadful thing." The dog, Canute, was golden retriever narrator had acquired when his children were pre-teens. Not long before Canute past away, narrator's daughter conveyed him to visit narrator and his new wife in their home. He snubbed narrator's new wife, and she seemed pleased to encounter touch of resistance, her position in world confirmed. A few days after visit, Canute disappeared, and was found dead of heart attack out in marshes near narrator's old house. Narrator feels that eventually there will be no one left to recall his humilitating between-marriage self. (Peden 70)

The careless young man and give an impression that he is somewhat ill-mannered at times. One can see this by his actions and diction in story. For example, Sammy sees backside of one of girls that comes into store and he says, “She was chunky kid, with good tan and sweet broad soft-looking can.”The three girls cause Sammy to make rather rational decision. Perhaps while trying to impress them, while girls are making their way out of store, Sammy tells his boss that he quits and he hopes girls hear it. In this paper, I will talk about how activities like these articulate Sammy's language and convey his character. (Gilbert 1155)

Sammy actions like most nineteen year vintage boys do. He thinks he knows world and people around him and how they work. However, his heedless actions cause him troubles at times. Sammy shows that he can be easily distracted when he says, “I stood there with my hand on box of HiHo crackers trying to ...