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Satire
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:
"The Bear Came Over the Mountain" is spread across different locations within the Southern Ontario region. It centers around the farmhouse that Fiona inherited from her father, in the country near Georgian bay, and Meadowlake, the care facility where Fiona goes to live.
Southern Ontario is a diverse, densely-populated region in the modern day, but its diversity is the result of substantial immigration that occurred beginning after World War II. In the story's mid-century setting, Ontario would have been towards the tail end of a population boom and a demographic shift. Munro represents Southern Ontario through a lens of small-town life, stereotypical for the region. The story grounds itself through observations about the town, which is depicted in a state of gradual decay:
Young families still lived here. There were basketball hoops over garage doors and tricycles in the driveways. But some of the houses had gone downhill from the sort of family homes they were surely meant to be. The yards were marked by car tracks, the windows were plastered with tinfoil or hung with faded flags.
Grant sees a stagnant suburban landscape, with young families inhabiting houses that were designed for a prior generation's lifestyle. Car tracks, tinfoil, and faded flags are all signs of wear accumulated over many years. Moreover, Grant is only marginally familiar with the town, living as he has in Fiona's father's farmhouse—another generational inheritance. Age and decline are important themes in "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," and their depiction in the landscape of the story is as significant as its depiction in its characters.
Although no year is mentioned in the story, there are a handful of context clues. By mention of an increased number of women attending Grant's classes and an "epidemic" of sexual scandals in universities, it can be assumed that Grant taught at university during the 1960s and 1970s, when increasing liberalization throughout North America and the Canadian feminist movement brought significant changes to academic institutions.
Related Themes:
