By going against their gender roles and being dressed inappropriately in A&P, they also create the possibility of tragedy occurring. A&P manager Lengel, a former Sunday school teacher, embodies what should be the masculine role of the times when he publicly chastises girls for being dressed that way in the store. Despite the girls' attempts to justify their dressing in this manner by saying that they only came to buy one thing, Lengel maintains his masculine gender role of keeping the women in line. Lengel states matter-of-factly, “We want you to be decently dressed when you come in here. » (Update 234). This is when Queenie pushes the boundaries even further by going against her gender roles, by responding to Lengel. Queenie's response: "We are decent" (Updike 234) shows her somewhat rebellious and disrespectful nature, as well as her disdain for Lengel's patriarchal authority. In this scenario, one would rather have expected her to apologize to Lengel and leave the store with her friends since he was not only a man but also an elder to her, thus demanding that she