Discussion Post I
After reading "A&P", answer the following questions. Use complete sentences and specific evidence from the text to support your claims. Again, make sure you are using direct in-text citations from the story.
• Describe Sammy's speech style. What can we infer about him from the way he speaks and the words that he uses?
• What is it about the girls, besides their wearing bathing suits, that causes such a stir in the store? What is the reaction of most of the regular customers, and what does that tell us about the nature of his town?
• For what reasons does Sammy quit? What symbolic meaning might the woman he sees outside the store instead of "his girls" hold for the reader?
• What might Sammy mean at the end of the story when he says that he realizes "how hard the world [is] going to be to [him] hereafter"? After all, this is just a supermarket job, right?
• How is this story about economic class, as in societal status? What comments does the story make about differences in class? Consider Sammy's imagined gathering at "[Queenie's] living room": how does Sammy's depiction of her life differ from what he says about his own?
Discussion Post II: Dissecting a Thesis
Below are two thesis statements that a student created about "A&P." Just by reading the initial thesis, you can get a sense of where the paper might be headed. But you shouldn't give your reader a sense of what might be happening; instead, just by reading the thesis, the reader should specifically know its focus. Using complete sentences, answer the following questions below:
Initial Thesis: The appearance of the three girls at the A&P store leads Sammy to make a decision he might regret.
Refocused Thesis: The appearance of Queenie and the other two girls makes Sammy realize that he's tired of the conformist routines he sees in his store and spur him to quit his job in order to strike against those routines.
• Using the thesis formula (THESIS = TOPIC + MAIN IDEA) as a reference, what is the TOPIC and MAIN IDEA of the refocused thesis?
• Why is the refocused thesis better than the first? Be specific!
The response should include a reference list. One-inch margins, Using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space and APA style of writing and citations.