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Motifs
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:
Native Son takes place, in its entirety, in the city of Chicago. Throughout the novel, Bigger occasionally but never seriously considers leaving Chicago and fleeing for somewhere else—either Evanston, just north of Chicago, or Gary, Indiana, just southeast. But the widespread police search in Book 2 makes it impossible to leave Chicago, and Bigger lives out the rest of his short life in a downtown prison. In fact, no one leaves Chicago in the book. Mary had plans, of course, to go to Detroit, but Bigger killed her before she could leave. Despite Chicago being a large and populous city, the novel has a constraining and claustrophobic feeling because of this inescapable setting.
