In the story "A&P," by John Updike, the main character Sammy makes the leap from an adolescent, knowing little more about life than what he has learned working at the local grocery store, into a man prepared for the rough road that lies ahead. As the story begins, Sammy is nineteen and has no real grasp for the fact that he is about to be living on his own working to support himself. Throughout the course of the story, he changes with a definite step into, first, a young man realizing that he must get out of the hole he...
is a short one. He looks around for his girls and notices that they have already left, but he knew that was a futile cause to begin with. And he steps outside to see the world and its opportunities as well as its responsibilities in front of him.

Although, Sammy could see "how hard the world would be hereafter," he knew that what was done had to be done.

In hindsight, Sammy still knew he had done the right thing as shown by "Now here comes the sad part of the story...but I don't think it's so sad myself."