Setting

Originally published in 1989, the short story “Debbie and Julie” by Doris Lessing is set in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Physical setting

The physical setting includes various places: Debbie’s flat, the shed where Julie gives birth, the pub, and Julie’s home (where her parents live). All these places are depicted through Julie’s perspective and are usually presented in contrast. Debbie’s flat is small and crowded compared to Anne and Len’s house:

“Inside the flat it was, she believed warm, but the heating in the block was erratic, particularly in bad weather…” (p. 89, ll. 9-10)
“There were two bedrooms in the flat. Debbie had given her the little one to herself.” (p. 105, ll. 6-7)

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Social setting

The social setting presents various aspects related to British society in the 1980s: class differences, family life, teen pregnancy, education, and prostitution. 

The protagonist of the story, Julie, comes from a middle-class British family in which she grew up deprived of affection and with little education about sex and intimacy.

When she gets pregnant, she decides to run away from home which suggests that Julie believed that she could not find understanding within her rigid family.

Ironically, she finds help and understanding at the other end of society. Debbie and her acquaintances illustrate a social life marked by illegality. Debbie is a prostitute, who had a pimp but now works independently. She also lets drug dealers like the Lebanese man use her flat as a meeting point. However, despite her questionable lifestyle, she shows Julie kindness and helps her while asking for nothing in return.

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