The East End

Much of Young Mungo is set in Glasgow’s East End. Stuart portrays the East End as a relatively impoverished neighborhood composed primarily of housing projects. Mungo lives in the East End along with his mother and siblings. He rarely leaves the neighborhood and, instead, often wanders the housing projects. On one of these walks, he meets James at his doocot and subsequently falls in love. Throughout the novel, Mungo grapples with simultaneous feelings of attachment and resentment towards the East End. Although he cannot imagine life elsewhere, he finds the community intolerant, hostile, and often violent. At the conclusion of the novel, James and Mungo make plans to leave the East End. Stuart’s ambiguous ending leaves the reader unaware as to whether these plans are successful.

The Unnamed Loch

The chapters set during “The May After” largely take place at an unnamed loch. After...