Setting

The setting of "Mrs. Plum" is important not only for the location in which the story takes place, but for the time period as well. The story takes place in the white suburb of Greenside, outside Johannesburg, South Africa's largest and most populous city. Johannesburg was, in the 1960s as it is now, a modern city with skyscrapers and industry in the center, pockets of poverty to the south and west, and wealthy suburbs to the north. During the time of the story, South Africa was strictly segregated, and only white people with large homes and black servants to take care of them inhabited the suburb of Greenside. The servants lived in simple quarters on their employers' property. Most of them, like Karabo and Chimane, left their families behind in small farms or towns far away, and sent money back whenever they could. Normally, they would visit their...