"The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece." This is the first example of color used by Updike in his story A & P. Updike uses other forms of imagery as well, such as animal and religious images. The images Updike utilizes contrast and describe the characters in the story.
The main character and the narrator of the story, Sammy, describes the people and events surrounding him vividly. In describing one of the girls" bathing suits Sammy says, "It was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp ," revealing Sammy's attention to detail. The color green symbolizes the youth of the girl. The bright green bathing suit is a stark contrast to the old and gray shoppers" clothing. Another character in the story is a girl that Sammy names Queenie. She has long white "prima-donna" legs, white shoulders and an even brighter white rim shining around the top of her bathing suit. This unmistakable use of white symbolizes Queenie's purity and perfection as a human being. .
Throughout the story Sammy identifies the shoppers as sheep and pigs. Sammy makes reference to "the sheep pushing their carts down the aisle- This reference to sheep reveals the shoppers herd-like actions. The shoppers move the same way and the girls walked against the usual traffic making their unusual appearance in the store more obvious. At the end of the story when Sammy quits he says," A couple of customers that had been heading toward my slot begin to knock against each other, like scared pigs in a chute." This description shows once more how the shoppers are acting as a group and the derogatory reference to pigs suggests Sammy's negative attitude toward the shoppers. In the beginning of the story Sammy makes an immature reference to how girls" minds work. He says, "do you really think it's a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar." This example reveals that Sammy is a little chauvinistic because he thinks that these girls don't even have a mind.
