Apartheid Era South Africa

The overall setting of the story is South Africa during the apartheid era which violently enforced a system of segregation between white people and black people. Apartheid has now officially ended but racial segregation continues to be a problem throughout the world, including in South Africa and in the United States of America, even when it is not legally enforced. The fear of crime which plagues the South African characters in the story will also be familiar to many modern readers despite the story being written 30 years ago.

Narrator’s House

The narrator’s house is the setting for the introduction to the story. The narrator is awoken by noises in the night and fears that the house is being robbed. However, the location of the house above an abandoned mine is the real cause of the noises. This setting symbolizes the story’s central...