'Setting In The Short Story A & P'

Improved Essays
A&P
Authors have the power to influence others to believe and feel a certain way based on their writing. They can do this from tone, theme, even setting. In the short story “A&P”, setting is what makes readers understand the meaning the author is trying get across. Taking place in an average grocery store during for the 1950s, readers observe the rarity of woman being seen wearing anything less than pants and a shirt. Setting is the author's way of giving meaning to the story.
Set in Boston during the 1950s “A&P” is a story that shows the conservative side of life in the 50s. How it was very unlike woman to been seen out in public, especially in a grocery store, wearing just a bathing suit. Setting plays such a major role in this story because

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Greasy Lake Analysis

    • 1016 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Greasy Lake and Setting Oftentimes, the setting is a particularly crucial part of a story. It could be symbolic for an idea, or it could contribute to the change of a characters personality. Furthermore, setting does not only refer to the location or time period of the story; it could also pertain to “climate and even the social, psychological, or spiritual state of the participants” (Literature, Glossary of Literary Terms, G26). The significance of setting is especially prevalent in the short story, Greasy Lake, by T.C. Boyle. Regarding the setting, though the time period is never outright mentioned it can be inferred form references used by the narrator that it is around the 1960’s when the story takes place, but this is is not the sole…

    • 1016 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In John Updike’s “A & P” the story theme revolves around self-worth. we are introduced to a main character Sammy who works in a convenience store titled A&P. where he comes across three girls who come in an attire not to common for their store. The store dress code for the workers consisting of a bow tie, demonstrating that it is a store that value appearances. The girls however, are wearing bathing suits, and are walking in a certain manner in which one plays the role as the alpha, and the others continue to follow suit. Sammy is captivated by their beauty and proceeds to track their movements through the store.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story “’Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros the setting symbolizes how Mexican-Americans, in this case, Micaela and her siblings, live in between two different worlds without being completely accepted into either the Mexican or the American culture. The fact that there are only two settings in the story along with the interactions with their grandma and the tourists and the references made about pop culture, gives enough evidence to support the idea that setting of the story serves as a symbol for the antagonist Micaela and her brothers find themselves battling without really knowing it. There are two settings in the story. Inside the dusty and dark church with high ceilings which smells like incense, and holy water, where the awful grandmother…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hunting trips are used as a bonding experience between friends and as a break from the many struggles that life contains. Although in some circumstances people’s intentions can be misguided and harmful to others. In American author Tobias Wolff’s short story “Hunters in the Snow” (1980), he looks into the moral unawareness of three friends. Three men go on a hunting trip where one gets shot and the other two blindly attempt to take him to the hospital. Wolff utilizes setting, symbolism, and characterization to convey the selfishness of the three characters and their apathy towards others.…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story “A & P,” by John Updike is narrated by a young cashier Sammy at the A & P supermarket. The focus of the story is the girls in bathing suits that come into the supermarket to shop. The girls catch Sammy’s attention and his eyes follow them around the store. Sammy eventually rings the girls order up. As Sammy is checking the girls out the manager approaches the girls and warns them about wearing only bathing suits to the store.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Quiz: The Elements of Fiction 1. Foreshadowing in literature is hint given by a writer as to what will happen during the end of the story. In the Tell-Tale Heart Poe’s first person character gives this hint in the second paragraph: “He had the eye of a vulture……….. I have made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” Later on during the end of the story he kills the old man.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Like many of Edgar Allan Poe's reads “The Cask of Amontillado” can easily exceed many reader’s idea of an eerie tale. This piece, told through the eyes of someone set on murdering another man who considers the distraught individual a friend of his, really provokes tension, suspense and mystery. These engendered feelings are created by Poe’s use of literary elements such as imagery, foreshadowing and the story’s setting. Although there are countless other causes for the mystery, tension and suspense, the three elements mentioned previously are some of the most pronounced.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many characteristics can be used and manipulated to add suspense to a film. In Alma, a short, suspenseful film written and directed by Rodrigo Blaas, a young girl is lured into a shop by the beautiful dolls, only to find out that when she touches the one that looks just like her, it traps her within the doll. Blaas uses suspense techniques effectively in this film. Setting, sound, and camera work are all characteristics that create a feeling of suspense. Blaas uses setting to add to the viewer’s feeling of fright.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A&P” In the short story “A&P,” John Updike weaves a seemingly innocuous tale that ultimately supports the theme of hypocrisy and class struggle in the dark reality of life faced by the average lower-middle class suburban American. At first glance, the story seems to center on feminism and hypocrisy when Updike writes that “it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, where what with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway, and another thing in the cool of the A&P, under the fluorescent lights” (3). In this way, the author emphasizes the paradoxical nature of society’s acceptance of women in bathing suits worn only on the beach. By observing the almost frivolously contradictory rules in society, the author alludes…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analyzing the Literary Elements of A&P In John Updike’s short story “A&P”, we are going to explore three particular literary elements. These elements are used to help give his readers a cashier’s perspective of a slow, yet eventful day in a grocery store. Sammy, who was a cashier in the store had come in for an ordinary day on the job.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sammy, a 19-year-old boy, serves as a protagonist character in the A&P short Story. He initially works as a cashier in a small-town supermarket. The A&P story happens in a small community that carries a profound conservative opinion (Wheeler, 2011). At the start of the story, three young ladies walk into the store putting on bathing suits. The way how the girls go about dressing themselves makes people especially Sammy look upon them strangely, which reveals the rift within the young and the old generations.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The setting needs to become a character in your story.” A setting is a type of place or surrounding and a character is a individual and what they are saying, feeling, doing, and what their reactions are. In the stories “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers and The Contender by Robert Lipsyte, the authors both use snapshots of setting and characters to tell the reader what the characters are doing and how they’re feeling. The treasure of lemon by Walter Dean Myers will help people understand the story more with snapshot.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Robin Wood argues that “Guy is suspended between tennis and politics, between his tramp wife and his senator’s daughter”(Wood, 87). This suspension shows Guys subconscious desire to change social class, and using Ann to do so. With Ann being an established, wealthy , and politically involved; Guy is subconsciously drawn to Ann and her social class. Alongside that is the fact that Guy’s relationship with Ann is far less than typical for 1950’s gender roles. According to Mary Norton the typical 1950’s family includes “male breadwinners and female homemakers” (Norton, 1st).…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Setting - Settings are major components of any story written. When reading a story it is often times the first important bit of information one will receive. The setting lays the framework for the entire story by introducing the mood of the story, and foreshadowing future events. The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is set in the late 1800s.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Authors use setting to set the mood and could have a menace effect on the plot and the characters. A negative setting allows the readers to connect to the characters and their behaviour. The setting sets the stage and builds the atmosphere to enhance emotions. The setting could be portrayed positively or negatively and Scott Fitzgerald and Arthur Miller both depict their novels to be illustrated negatively. Therefore, in The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald 's use of setting is negative and is emphasized through dysfunctional relationships and self destruction.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays