America

America as both a country and a concept (that is: as a country defined by reputations for both ultimate freedom and a continuing tendency towards racism) is the narrative's primary setting. In the same way as the author makes a home and a life for himself as a black man within its geo-political borders, he makes his spiritual intellectual, and emotional home within its socio-cultural borders, which he portrays as being defined by negative, racist, debilitating attitudes towards black people.

Mississippi

The state of Mississippi, in the American South, is the setting for much of the early part of the narrative - specifically, the sections dealing with the author's childhood. Mississippi, like many of the other states in the South, has a long history of racist attitudes and practices, going back to slavery and before. This aspect of its history, along with present-day continuations of attitudes that...