#!/usr/bin/env bash
awk '
  BEGIN {
    arr[A]=1;
    arr[B]=1;
    arr[C]=1;
    arr[E]=1;
    arr[J]=8;
    arr[Q]=10;
    print arr[J]
  }'

the above command outputs the latest set value for arr['subscript'], in this case 10 that is value of arr[Q] just before print and not 8 that is the value of arr[J].

Also, like in the script above, I don't want to assign values to arr['A'], arr['B'], arr['C'] and arr['E'] that have same value 1 one line at a time, rather pass an array of subscripts as one of the parameters and common value as the other parameter to a function that handles the logic of assigning them value.