Setting

Physical setting

The physical setting of “This is My Living Room” by Tom McAfee is the town of Pine Springs, located in the Southern US (p. 133, l. 11). The few references to Birmingham (p. 134, l. 27) also indicate that the events take place in the state of Alabama, in Southern US. 

The narrative focuses on the general atmosphere of the town, which is presented when the narrator describes his store and some of the townspeople. The store’s customers are mainly “country folks and niggers” (p. 136, l. 8), for whom the narrator sells “canned goods, fresh meat, bread and crackers, flour, fencing, nails, hammers, guns (…) all the things a body could need” (p. 136, ll. 14-15). For the narrator, the store is more “like a human being” (p. 136, l. 1) than like a place. The narrator also mentions stores such as “Admore’s where it’s just women’s hats and dresses, ...