Setting

The short story “Sports Leader” by Jane Rogersis set somewhere in West Yorkshire, England, close to Huddersfield (l. 8) and takes place over a couple of months. However, the main events take place over two days—Thursday (l. 58) and Friday. We know the events begin in November (l. 2), but we do not know the exact year, although it is likely to be set around the time of publishing, 2012.

Physical setting

The elements of the physical setting are the streets and houses of the town where the main character is going with his employer to clean the windows and then to collect the money.

The inside of these houses is described a couple of times, to suggest the character’s fascination with the intimacy of family life, something which he misses probably because he was raised by a foster mother:

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Social setting

The social setting illustrates aspects related to the way society treats people with disabilities, and to the life of foster children.

The main character is a teenager boy who probably has a cognitive disability. Furthermore, he lives with a foster mother, Eileen, which implies that his parents either died or left him. The boy still remembers the time when he used to live with his parents as a happy time.

Because he failed to take his exams and get a job on his own, Eileen found him a job as a window cleaner. The woman’s attitude towards the boy suggests that she views him as a burden: “He’d spent September and October trailing about not finding a job, and Eileen was sick of him parked in front of the telly.

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