Without ever mentioning the year in which the story takes place, or using the terms “segregation” or “Jim Crow,” Gaines illustrates that his story is set during that era. However, James, a character nearing adolescence, is also living in a region that is on the precipice of change.

To get to Dr. Bassett’s office, James and his mother must get on a segregated bus. Gaines notes this fact when James passes “the little sign” that reads “White” and “Colored” (90). The sign is unremarkable because it is a common feature of life in the South. Black and White people did not sit near each other on buses. Black passengers were always relegated to the rear of the bus, and they were refused the option to sit in any empty seat in the White section when seats in the Black section were full. Gaines, however, doesn’t highlight any moments of outrage or indignity around this mundane fact. Instead, by presenting the teasing exchange between James and the little girl in the red overcoat, Gaines reveals how life was as normal in Black communities as in any other, despite their living with the indignities of segregation.

Similarly, life in the family cabin is not especially grim, despite the family’s poverty and their existence under the sharecropping system.