Setting

Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Highest Branch on the Tree” is set in 1974 in Chicago. It also includes references to events that happened 40 years before, while the characters were attending Berendo Junior High School (l. 10…

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Physical setting

The physical setting includes different places, according to each timeline. The action from 1934 is set in the yard of the high school, the most important element of the setting being a tree (ll. 10-13). Later, the same tree “got some sort of disease and had been cut down” (l. 49), possibly alluding to the narrator's fading memories of the event. For the narrator, the tree becomes a symbol of the guilt and shame he felt for bullying Harry as a teenager.

The physical setting of 1974 includes the streets of Chicago and the office building owned by Harry Hinds. The writer mention…

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Social setting

The social setting covers aspects related to teenage bullying and its consequences, as well as social and professional status.

The first part of the story which narrates events from when the characters were in high school focuses on teenage bullying. This part reveals how common bullying is and how it is often a result of envy: “Happens every year, every school, everywhere at one time or another. (…) Harry Hands was smarter than anyone else in the whole school. This was the first crime.” (ll. 53-57)

The two characters help the author expl…