Poor_White_Angel_Intro_on_Symbolism

Michael Cunningham, the author of the story, sets the date of the story in the 1960s and in the city of Cleveland. It may or may not be true that Cunningham based the story in this time period to make the drug addiction and under aged drinking more of a practical practice for bobby because in this time drugs were more common and widely used at that time.” in addition to the story taking place in the 60s, Bobby and Carlton live in a neighborhood called The Woodlawn,the neighborhood is an orderly strip of one and two story houses painted in optimistic colors, such as bright yellow and blue. The Woodlawn borders a cemetery and beyond the cemetery lies a field of smooth polished stones which are possibly raw material for headstones. That information about the setting immediately gives the reader a sense that the two of them are not in a happy situation. However the irony behind it is that that they would actually rather hang out in a place of death and mourning rather than at their own homes shows that their house is not a very comfortable place to them. The title of the story comes into play as a statue located in the graveyard, it is in fact a White angel. The boys make it apparent that the statue watches over them and protects them while they are in the graveyard, seemingly a form of comfort to them although ultimately it provides no such protection. The Graveyard serves as Bobby and Carlton growing up site, the brothers once played in that cemetery but now they smoke joints and drink whiskey there. The story was very descriptive and let you know how the character was feeling through the scene and the actions occurring. Cunningham uses setting very cleverly and he does a great job to show what is going on in a story rather that telling it.