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Chicken Hill

Narrow focus of the novel’s setting, this is an undesirable neighborhood where many of the characters live.

Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

This eponymous grocer is a generational project for characters in the text and a focus of gatherings for more than one minority community.

Hurricane Agnes

A massive storm, this weather event erased much prior history, allowing space for the fiction of the novel to occur.

Marble

This childhood toy becomes something of a currency among the local children and a sign of affection from the local grocer.

Mayflower

This ship is tied to the founding mythology of the United States, and the presence of ancestors upon it is often used as a shorthand for social quality that may or may not be evident from behavior.

Pennhurst

Setting for some of the novel, this institution is ostensibly a place of healing but is in...

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This section contains 235 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample