The novel is
set in and reflects the mores and technology of a small town in New England in the early 1960s,
the time when the book was written. There are no personal computers, no microwaves, and no cell
phones. A radio issues hurricane warnings. We learn that Meg and her mother struggle with Meg's
hair, having trouble "putting it up," which would mean using pin curls or curlers,
something we seldom, if ever, do today.
When the children arrive at Camazotz,
the neighborhood is described as a typical 1950s housing development and acts as a commentary on
the "conformity" people worried about in that period, when modern identical
subdivisions of the Levittown variety had only been built for about fifteen years. We learn
that:
The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike,
small square boxes painted gray. Each had a small, rectangular plot of lawn in front, with a
straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door.
The children on Camazotz deliver newspapers on bicycles, bounce balls, and skip ropes,
all activities we associate with bygone eras.
The book thus is both science
, complete with interstellar travel and alien beings, and a period piece reflecting white
middle-class life in an era roughly 55 years past.
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