Setting

Physical setting

The short story “The School of Life” by Lauren Keenan takes place in New Zealand. Marcus mentions he often flies to Dunedin (l. 22), a city in New Zealand, which is either where he lives or where he goes to university. The story takes place over the course of Marcus’s first workday. 

More specifically, the story takes place at a plant nursery where Marcus has started his new summer job. The nursery is owned by a man who used to know Marcus’s father and who hired Marcus as a favor to his father. 

The setting serves to show the contrast between Marcus and the other people who work there, who, unlike Marcus, have not gone to university, do not wear fancy clothes, and do not come from wealthy families. Marcus does not fit into the work environm...