August's Brooklyn Apartment

August's small apartment is described as a three-floor walk up. At first it is her prison in Brooklyn, but eventually she comes to see it as home. It is clear August lives in a very working-class neighborhood, swiftly becoming poorer with the white flight occurring through her childhood. August does not necessarily feel unsafe in this apartment, but prostitutes live on the floor below, drug addicts litter the sidewalks outside, and her friends all try to leave for better high schools.

SweetGrove

SweetGrove is the land in Tennessee owned by August's mother's family. They are not farmers, however, so they are unable to properly cultivate the land or pay taxes on it, and the government reclaims much of it while August is a child. The land is filled with pecan trees and is edged with water, and in all of August's memory it is an almost-idyllic...