Standing up for what is right
In a young man’s life, they will have to face an internal conflict in standing up for what they believe in. Sammy from John Updike’s short story “A&P” and Sarty from William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” are two examples of young people who stand up against their higher authorities in what they feel is morally right, based on the actions of their elders. In “A&P,” Sammy is nineteen years old and works at this local A&P market. He then quits his job after defending three girls that are insulted by the store manger [Lengel] for wearing bikini’s in his market. In “Barn Burning,” Sarty, a ten-year-old boy, struggles to figure out what is right and what is wrong, when his father is on trial for burning barns. When Abner attempts to burn De Spain’s barn, Sarty goes and warns him. There are many people who have taken a stand in what they believe in for the reason of keeping their dignity and self-confidence, with Sarty and Sammy being two examples of this.

The huge similarity between these two characters is that they are both dissatisfied with their upper figures. Lengel, the A&P manager, confronts three girls, who walk into the market wearing only bikinis. Sammy then notices what occurs and he is very dissatisfied in the way Lengel treated the three girls. Sammy then speaks the line, ” So I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll [the girls] will stop and watch me, their unsuspecting hero,” (1283). By saying that, he shows his dissatisfaction with Lengel’s treatment for the girls as an act of standing up to his upper figure in what he believes is
morally right. Sammy then walks out of the store, and that was significant because the sunlight hits him strongly. This could be a symbol that it was the right decision to quit working at the market and he was walking into the light,…