John Updike does something clever and interesting in "A&P": he gives us a lusty 19-year old guy for a narrator and has him perform what Updike calls "an act of feminist protest. "This story is about three girls who walk into an A&P supermarket on a Thursday afternoon, wearing just their bathing suits. The girls know that others are watching them, however they act careless, and this dynamic appears to loan the girls a sort of implicit power. In any case, this power ends up being something of a dream, since the girls can't generally bridle it. The reaction they get from the other customers makes up the bulk of the tale. Ultimately the manager of the store confronts them directly, going so far as to say that they are not dressed "decently." He
