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Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
“Raymond’s Run” is set in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Harlem in New York City, likely in the early 1970s (when Bambara wrote the story). Though the story is entirely set in this urban community, Squeaky—the first-person narrator—occasionally references her early life spent in an unnamed rural location, as seen in the following passage (that comes as she is preparing to run a race in her neighborhood):
The man on the loudspeaker is calling everyone over to the track and I’m on my back looking at the sky, trying to pretend I’m in the country, but I can’t, because even grass in the city feels hard as sidewalk, and there’s just no pretending you are anywhere but in a “concrete jungle” as my grandfather says.
Here, Squeaky tries “to pretend [she’s] in the country” in order to feel grounded before the big race but struggles to do so “because even grass in the city feels hard as sidewalk.” By having Squeaky note how she feels trapped in the “concrete jungle” of New York after a childhood of rural freedom, Bambara is drawing attention to how few options Black Americans had at the time—it is likely that Squeaky’s parents, like many Black Americans, moved to the city because it was the only place where they could find reliable work and financial stability.
The fact that the story takes place on May Day (May 1st) is also significant. May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is a holiday centered on celebrating the labor movement and working-class power. In Harlem in the early 1970s, May Day celebrations like the one in the story combined festivities for children (such as the race that Squeaky participates in) alongside rallies and cultural events organized by the Black Panther Party and other Black leftist organizations. It is likely that such an event would also feature feminist themes.
Related Themes:
