Village

The narrator and his family live in a remote French village. The surrounding area is inhabited by farms and "stony fields (396). Before the war, the village is quiet and the roads surrounding the narrator's home are not heavily trafficked. Indeed, the narrator defines the region as "chestnut country" and remarks that the area is primarily inhabited by "mostly bats and ruined walls, and a simple church" (397). Because the village is so remote, the narrator convinces himself that the war will not affect him or his family. He therefore chooses to focus on the beauty of his natural surroundings in order to distance himself from the violence that is increasingly encroaching upon his idyllic village life.

Tire Shop

The tire shop is one of the short story's primary settings. The narrator's father "started the business in 1925" (396). It is contiguous with the narrator and his family's home and situated directly...