What is the setting in the novel, The Grass Is Singing?

The setting in The Grass is Singing plays an inextricably vital role in the action, and manifests on several levels, the first being political and social. At the time and in the place where the novel is set (late 1940's South Africa), the day-to-day life of the country and its inhabitants was governed by apartheid, a system of institutionalized racism that gave the minority white population power over the majority black population. This power manifested on every level—economic, political, and inter-personal. The relationships and attitudes of the white and black characters in The Grass is Singing are, therefore, a microcosm of pervasive societal attitudes that, in general, fostered hatred, fear, resentment and anguish on both sides.