Quote-Response

“ His face was dark and his back stiff, as he‘d just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the was going to be to me hereafter .” (Kennedy, p.19)

This message concludes the story in a negative tone and is of great significance in relevance to the message that the author is trying to convey. In the end of the story, Sammy quits and walks away due to the way that Lengel, the manager, humiliated the girls. The three, bikini-wearing girls who walked into the store was basically judged by the way that they were dressed and it was against store policy. The supermarket is like the world almost. An event out of the ordinary occurred and it was frowned upon.
In the quote I choose, injection of iron was used. I think the word iron symbolizes how hard society can be towards each other. Iron containing various physical properties, behaves like how society is portrayed in the text. Iron is a metal that is malleable but with use of great pressure and strength. Change is possible but there will always be resistance. Second, not only is this injection of iron used to describe the current state of the manager. It’s also used to foreshadow the iron(hard-weight) that Sammy will have to bear after quitting.
Adjectives like dark and stiff was used also. Sammy realizes that the consequences he’ll soon have to face is like the dark and stiff-back manager. Sammy stood by his conviction in the end yet he knows that it comes with unwanted consequence. Possibly with his parents who is great friends with the manager.
It’s interesting a simple setting like the supermarket was the setting yet the vivid imagery that the author portrays is commendable. He uses onomatopoeia very effectively and made it seem like a day in the supermarket is actually eventful when most of us don’t really take notice of the smallest details that occur. Honestly, If I was to write a piece, most likely the setting would not occur in a supermarket because I really don’t see excitement when I think of supermarkets.
Several questions came to mind while reading this piece. Some could be trivial and not have any significance to the story. It’s just on a “want-to-know” basisWhy is it that Sammy refers to the manger as Lengel?.What was the purpose behind mentioning the main character’s name only towards the end? Is Queenie the name of the leader in the group of bikini-wearing girls that entered the supermarket? If so was it really insignificant to mention the other girls’ name. What does the acronym of A&P stand for? Is the author like the main character, Sammy, in this reading?