Unnamed Small Rural Town

After graduate school, Gay moves to an unnamed "very small town in the middle of a cornfield" (20). Here she gets a very good tenure track position as a professor at a university. Despite the career success, Gay is bored and lonely. This unnamed small town is symbolic of the sacrifices Gay makes for her career. She leaves a relationship and friends behind to pursue her professional academic ambitions and must adjust to her new life.

Haiti

Haiti is where Gay's parents were born and where their family frequently vacationed when Roxanne was a child. Haiti is where Gay witnessed true poverty for the first time. Contrasting Haiti to the United States made Gay aware of the privilege of her education and American citizenship. Haiti serves to demonstrate that privilege is relative: although she faces challenges as a black women in the United States, Gay...