I like teaching setting with Judith Oritz Cofer's story “Volar.” This story isn't about what the characters do as much as how they respond to their environment. It's about the setting and how the characters perceive and interact with their surroundings, so it doesn't start by describing the setting.
The story begins with an unnamed female protagonist and narrator recollecting her girlhood love of Supergirl comics, which she kept in her bedroom closet. This little detail is the first indication of setting – for whatever reason, she kept her beloved comic books in her closet. If these were something to be hidden, they'd likely be under, or even inside, the bed, and there isn't anything to suggest she was trying to hide them; on the contrary, she spent her allowance on them, so her parents probably knew about them. This suggests there's no room on a desk, shelf, or drawer for them. Already it starts to feel a little claustrophobic.
The protagonist then describes her childhood fantasy of climbing to the top of her apartment building and becoming Supergirl, including a range of physiological changes (best saved for a discussion on race and ethnicity representations). She would then, as Supergirl, observe the community around her and comment about it – specifically using her super-breath to disturb the intimidating landlord. She would then awake in “our tiny apartment” (286) and go into the kitchen where her mother would try to convince her father that they could vacation in Puerto Rico and visit their family, and he would comment on the cost.
From within the kitchen, the only image outside the apartment is from the kitchen window: “The view was of a dismal alley that was littered with refuse thrown from windows. The space was too narrow for anyone larger than a skinny child to enter safely, so it was never cleaned.”
The first thing to take away from this is that settings can be confining. It's not as overtly restrictive as, for example, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” but there is a certain claustrophobia about this little story, which is made all the more apparent by the character's longings to leave it. The protagonist wants to become Supergirl so she can rise above and exert power; the mother wants to visit their family, while the father reminds that them they don’t have the fiscal means to go on a vacation to Puerto Rico.
The claustrophobic setting itself represents their situation. The story never specifies where they live (Cofer herself was born in Puerto Rico and then moved to New Jersey and later Georgia) but their financial situation shows itself through the parents' conversation and by the quality of their apartment. If they could afford to fly to Puerto Rico, they'd probably have a nicer apartment. If they'd had a better situation in Puerto Rico, they would return to be with family. Meanwhile, the protagonist shirks her biological heritage when she imagines having Super Girl's blonde, straight hair instead of her own dark, curly hair. Each aspect of their lives are confining, whether it's something geographical, like their distance from home; financial like their inability to visit Puerto Rico. It's even cultural, demonstrated by the protagonist's interest in American comics while her parents mingle Spanish and English, or her desires for Super Girl's straight blonde hair, or even something so simple as the confining descriptions of their apartment, juxtaposed with a longing for something more expansive – the power to fly.
After all, “volar” is Spanish for “to fly.”
Looking at setting gives us a way to contextualize the stories we read from a variety of perspectives. “Volar” has economic, cultural, and spatial conditions and uses these settings to create an atmosphere that is, like I said above, claustrophobic. Authors use setting to develop themes, employ symbols, or give a historical or cultural background: setting provides basic information to help the reader negotiate the storyworld. By paying attention to how the spaces in a story are presented, we can get an idea at what will be important for the story.
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Works Cited
Cofer, Judith Oritz. "Volar." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. W.W. Norton, 2013. 286-287. Print.
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