George Orwell, 1984, uses betrayal as a method to reinforce the feeling of alienation and loneliness. “On walks, these three girls wear nothing but swimsuits (Updike 430). » The opening of the short story written by John Updike, entitled "A&P", immediately creates a feeling of perplexity. The setting that the author uses as a backdrop is essential to the story and helps to understand the main character's decision to ultimately quit his job at the end. The protagonist and main character is Sammy, an employee of the A&P. Sammy not only leaves his job, but he also chooses to leave A&P and what the store represents in the story. John Updike's "A&P" uses the framework of the story to create a sense of restriction. The time period of history affects the framework of A&P. The story takes place in a time when a town had only one grocery store and everyone knew each other. Updike provides details and hints that the story takes place in the early 1960s. Inside the A&P, there was an aisle that contained "discounted records of the Caribbean Six or Tony Martin Sings or some other shit like that that makes you wonder if they're wasting the wax…” (Updike 433). Tony Martin was an American pop singer who had a successful recording career. Martin's peak popularity was in the mid-1950s ("Martin, Tony"). Given that the records were ignored and described as filth, this suggests that the A&P was still clinging to older ideals and was reluctant to move forward. It paints a picture of an era and an old-fashioned grocery store. Since the story takes place in a seemingly quiet, small-town grocery store, the setting of the A&P plays an important role in the story. The setting of the story represented uniformity in the middle of paper......which is very essential to the reader since the title of the story is the setting, "A&P". The setting of the A&P makes the reader feel like they are the antagonist of the story. Although Sammy is the main character of the story, Updike seems to spend as much time and effort describing the setting of the story as he does the characters. The girls in swimsuits represented a feeling of freedom unlike the setting of the A&P, which was a feeling of confinement. Once Sammy quits his job and leaves the A&P, he is no longer limited by his environment. Sammy then frees himself from A&P's rigid mindset. Works Cited “Martin, Tony”. Encyclopedia Britannica (2013): Search Starters. Internet. April 8, 2014. Updike, John. “A&P.” Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable 11th ed. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. 429-435. Print.