Point of View

The story takes place in the first person point of view, through Bill's eyes. This is done so that the reader really gets a sense of Bill's thoughts and feelings on the situation that unfolds. By hearing the story in the first person, we also get the benefit of hearing Bill's long rants on society and on industrialism. He has a lot of strong feelings about the reasons behind the town's demise, and we are afforded the opportunity to hear his innermost thoughts.

Setting

The story is set about 30 years ago in a small Midwestern town. It is interesting that we never learn the name of the town, or even what state it's in. This is so we can easily imagine that it can really be any town, since during that time the economy of many small towns was depressed because of growing competition from overseas...