Setting

The time setting reveals that the events in “The Tree of War” by Tanya Datta spread over the course of a couple of hours, from evening to night . In the evening, Krishna’s mother calls him home and night falls while Krishna confronts his father: “Somehow, without me realising it, night has stolen in while we have been sitti…

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Physical setting

The physical setting where the events take place is North London (ll. 50-51), more specifically on the street where Krishna now lives with both his parents:

… a jam-packed row of houses that feels like a line of policemen linking arms to keep something out. From our front doors the concrete city spreads out all the way to the skyscrapers in the distance. But out back an enormous green park sweeps uphill from the end of our gardens, like a sleeping dinosau…

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Social setting

The social setting focuses on the lives of immigrants, particularly on Krishna and his mother, who moved from India to England. Krishna’s mother could buy a flat (l. 80) and offer Krishna a comfortable life, albeit in a downtrodden neighbourhood that Krishna dislikes walking through at night. Note that, although living in England, Krishna’s mother did not give up tradition: “squashed on top of all her saris” (ll. 85-86).

The social setting also briefly hints at the conflict in Northern Ireland through the …