Washington, D.C.

The most common overarching setting in All Aunt Hagar's Children is the city of Washington, D.C., which either directly serves as a setting or is an important thematic element in every story in the collection. Jones is particularly fascinated by the relationship between Washington and Black culture, particularly to the extant that Washington served as something of a mecca for north-bound Black people escaping the oppressive conditions of the American South during the middle of the twentieth century. Throughout the collection, Washington represents both a land of opportunity and vice, and many characters struggle to situate themselves there while also balancing nostalgia, fondness, or loyalty to the areas they came from. Washington is also presented as an educated, affluent, and urban alternative to the rural lifestyles of many southerners who gradually migrated north to it. These dynamics come to bear on all of the stories...