The setting is the context in which a story occurs. It is made up of three parts: time, place, and cultural representations. These control the mood/atmosphere of the story as well and may have further symbolic significance, especially in certain genres. The dual settings provide the necessary components to illustrate and develop both aspects of the main protagonist’s hybrid Korean American identity, for example.

The novel uses setting to create structural parallels in time, place, and cultural context between South Korea and America. These parallels help establish the protagonist’s understanding of the main conflict between self-advocacy and racism while providing the resolution when Junie stands up to Tobias within the present-day setting.