Setting

Time setting

William Boyd’s short story “Killing Lizards” was published in 1981, and the setting is probably meant to be read as contemporary to the time of publishing. This is indicated, for example, by the presence of the Volkswagen van (l. 116) in the story, a type of car which gained popularity in the 1970s.

The events take place during the Easter holidays (ll. 74-75) over the course of one day – Gavin sets out to meet his friends in the early afternoon (l. 67) and returns home in the evening: “The lowering sun was striking the flat rocks” (l. 159).

Physical setting

From the beginning of the story, we learn that the events take place somewhere in Africa (although the specific country is not mentioned, suggesting a generic colonial setting). Note that the story also mentions England, where Amanda lives at a boarding school (ll. 8-9).

When we first encounter Gavin, he is squatting on the verandah of the house (l.1). The story makes several references to the inside of Gavin’s house, from which we learn that Amanda and Gavin have bedrooms of their own, while their parents share a bedroom: “he walked in through the kitchen and past his bedroom and that of his older sister” (ll. 7-8); “Gavin slowly pushed open the door of his parents’ bedroom” (l. 39).

In the parents’ bedroom, there is a double bed (l. 43), a dressing table (l. 45), a wardrobe (l. 53) and a mirror (l. 62). Gavin’s mother says that she is going to an unnamed place, to rehearse for a play (l. 55).

Gavin’s house is in or near a large university campus (l. 69). Because his father is a professor in the Chemistry Department, Gavin has access to the chemistry labs: “Gavin loved to go down to the labs with their curious smells and test-tubes and rubber pipes.” (ll. 72-73).

Gavin meets his friends at a pre-arranged corner (l. 88), and then they walk down a road “firing stones at trees and clumps of bushes” (l. 89). They go to see Gavin’s father, who is marking exam papers in an empty lab (l. 93). Outside the lab, there is a red hibiscus hedge (l. 97).

The boys kill four lizards near the school, which stands “on a small hill overlooking a teak forest” (l. 110). When the rest of the lizards hide, the boys hang out in the jungle gym of the school pla...