Setting

Published in 2016, the short story “Smile” by Roddy Doyle is set during the narrator’s childhood at a Catholic school in Ireland (as indicated by dialect words and the names of the characters, which are typically Irish). If we assume the time of the narration is the same as the time of publishing, then the events probably take place in the 1970s-1980s.

Physical setting

The main psychical setting is that of the Catholic school, described from the narrator’s perspective as a teenager:

And the place itself was a maze. The trip from geography to science involved leaving one room, through another room after knocking and enduring the sneers and kicks of the fifth years; out to the yard, into another house, through what must originally have been the kitchen door, down a hall, and left, into a science lab that had a bay window with a view of the railway embankment and a huge fireplace. And thirty Bunsen burners. (ll. 36-41)

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Social setting

The social setting conveys aspects about school life, sexuality, bullying, and religion.

The boys bully Victor about his sexuality after noticing that Brother Murphy is attracted to him, which suggest a society in which the potential victims of adult abuse are mocked and bullied. Victor does not complain at home about anything that happens at school, which shows how parents can be ignorant of their children’s problems at school.

Victor's mother is proud of him going to school because she has no secondary education.

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