The United States of America

The United States of America, with its centuries-long history of racial tension, is the broad strokes setting for the entire collection. This setting is connected to the book's primary theme, which considers the day-to-day life of black people in America, particularly within the context of that history of racial conflict.

Indoor Environments

For the most part, the action of the various stories plays out within the boundaries of indoor environments - homes, businesses, schools, movie theaters, libraries. There are occasional references to conversations and confrontations taking place outside and in public, with "Heads of the Colored People" (the story) being the most notable example. This sense of action and confrontation playing out indoors takes that action away from nature and into an overall sense of constructed, man-made circumstances. This, arguably, fits in with the collection's central thematic consideration of day-to-day life as lived by...