Point of View in "Accident"

Matt, I couldn't agree more that the second person point of view does indeed help the reader to become more closely linked with the character. Third person is nowhere near as personal, and if we had been reading this in a third person point of view, it would have looked to us like: "A guy crashes his car with a bunch of teenagers. He then gets overly emotional for some reason."
However, since it's "you," second person, the tone is more accusatory. Like Mrs. McGettigan said in class, the author seems to be attempting to say "This could happen to anyone. Even you. Deal with it." Second person is the most personal of the points of view he could have used.
Even if he had used first person, we would still treat it as a narrative. First person seems as if it's a person telling you something, not as if you are the one the events are happening to. The use of the term "you" in place of a protagonist character is an attempt to draw the reader into the story; it accuses, it entraps the reader in the plot line. After the shift, when the protagonist/you/the main character begins to start getting emotional, it no longer tells things in an objective point of view. It is saying that everyone at some point in their life will feel lonely, and the entire last line is a metaphor for the sorrows of life, how one can try to stay afloat by oneself but will be dragged under without the support of others.

I really agree with what you said. In the story, the point of view gives us insight into Sammy's motivations because we have access to all of his thoughts. If first person point of view was not used, some might think that Sammy quit in protest of his boss since the boss embarrassed the girls. However, there is no ambiguity. We know definitively that he only quit just to impress the girls.

Alan, I agree with your comments about the importance of the first person point of view in “A&P” and the impact that it has on the characterization of Sammy. To expand on this idea, another component of point of view in the story is the narrative voice. Throughout the story, the author employs a variety of techniques to make the type of person that the narrator is, be very clear. In the story, the narrator, Sammy, embodies the stereotype of a hormonal teenage boy. The first person point of view allows the reader to see into Sammy’s thoughts, revealing his obsession with girls and focus on their external appearance (demonstrated by how he relentlessly observes every move of the girls in the bikinis in a very crude and almost perverted manner), a trait that is associated with the teenage boy stereotype. Further developing the narrator’s voice, Sammy speaks in a colloquial manner, begging sentences with phrases like “you know” or “really”, and adding in sassy or humorous observations, such as comparing the grocery store shoppers to sheep. The usage of this conversational language conveys Sammy’s youth and helps create the narrator’s voice. Lastly, Sammy’s impulsive and childish decisions further develop his voice as an immature and hormonal teenage boy. Sammy’s motivation to quit his job was purely to impress the girls by being their “knight in shining armor”, as displayed by his disappointment when they were not outside waiting to reward him and his regret with his decision. Sammy’s statement that, “once you begin a gesture, it’s fatal not to go through with it” shows that he does not focus on analyzing one’s decisions and the potential consequences before acting, which further exemplifies his childish personality and develops the narrative voice. The author does all this to create the narrator’s voice in order to make the story somewhat relatable and keep the protagonist from being completely unlikable.

Matt, I agree completely with you in the thought that the story would not be the same with another point of view such as first person or third person point of view. The second person point of view in the story by the Author was put in for a reason, to create an immersive feeling to the reader as if he/she was in that situation. In the case of the story the reader was supposed to feel as though "they" were in the story as themselves and not as another character created by the author. Here you can have your feelings and emotions about the scene/text in the story as if you really living in it or had already lived this experience. If Dave Eggers had wrote the short story with another point of view the story would not have felt the same, either being because it was third person and you were not attached to the character in anyway or first person where you were reading as the character. None of these points of view provide the thoughts and feelings you get in second person.

I disagree with this. I feel that everything that goes through Sammy's mind, such as his motivation for quitting, is very clear just from his actions. Although being able to see into his mind does confirm any suspicions the reader said, I think that from Sammy looking around for the girls after making his big show of defending them shows that he was just looking for their approval. Also, throughout the story, Sammy's somewhat perverty nature could be clearly seen through any outsiders eyes. If the audience could not see into Sammy's mind, and only heard a description of his actions, his characterization would still be the same, as him constantly checking out the girls in their bathing suits would give us the same insight as hearing his thoughts. I think that the real reason for Updike's choice in point of view is to make sure the reader doesn't hate Sammy. Although by no means do I think he's a likable character, being able to see into his mind just allows the reader to feel like they know him, making them feel less inclined to dislike him.