Where It All Goes Down
South Africa in the 1940s and 50s
Which Africa? South Africa
It is impossible to forget which country this novel takes place in, what with all the Zulu and Afrikaans phrases as well as the constant references to South African language, politics, history, and geography. He especially likes to talk about the regions as he travels by train:
The landscape had changed in a subtle way. Yesterday's rolling grassland was now broken by occasional koppies, rocky outcrops with clumps of dark green bush, each no more than a hundred feet high. Flat-topped fever trees were more frequent and in the far distance a sharp line of mountains brushed the horizon in a wet, watercolor purple. We were coming into the true lowveld. (7.2)
By using words like koppies and lowveld, the author emphasizes the very particular landscape of South Africa. Sure, there are rocky outcrops all over the world, but they're only called koppies in South Africa. Little things like this are peppered throughout the story and remind us how special this place is.
Tough Times
The time period also has a heavy and explicit influence on the arc of the story. Peekay's first foray into boarding school happens during the Second World War, and his fear of Hitler is a regular feature of the story. This gives the novel a universal feeling, because Hitler's war affected pretty much the whole world, so anyone growing up in that time can identify with Peekay.
The racism that just oozes all over the pages is also a sign of the times:
Within a week of being elected, the Nationalists kept their promise, and white South Africans derived great satisfaction from knowing that for once they had a government that kept its word. Meanwhile, the black South Africans prepared to bend their backs to the sjambok and for the invention of a new game where they voluntarily fell on their heads from the third story of police headquarters to the pavement below. (21.3)
This is an ironic way of talking about the gross human rights violations that took place during this time period, with the murders of many black citizens at the government's hands an all too common occurrence under apartheid rule.
Repress Much?
Even though Peekay moves all over the place—from the boarding school to Barberton and its prison to the Prince of Wales School to the mines—these environments all have something in common: they all represent systems that can be very repressive to their members.
At the boarding school the boys are expected to fall into line or face Mevrou's wrath; in Barberton, at the prison, Peekay sees just how repressive the government can be toward the prisoners. And at the Prince of Wales School, even though it's less obvious, the repression has to do with the fact that only a certain set of kids can get in: mostly rich, white, Christians. Even the exceptions, Peekay and Morrie, are white. And the mines are just downright scary.
All of these settings present a special challenge that Peekay must overcome, like bullying, witnessing racism, economic inequality, and finally, physical hardship. The setting really determines what difficulties Peekay will face.