SETTING OF THE STORY
The events in the analysed story happen in “a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places"”. It is depicted as an unwelcoming place: “There was only a bear, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away…its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.” However, the cohabitation between Sue and Johnsy seems truly merry until the one of the girl became infected with Pneumonia.

To make the atmosphere more dramatic the author  uses such epithets as “a bare, dreary yard”, “the cold breath of autumn”, “a persistent, cold rain”. 

 It is presented in a detailed way and reflects the mood of the story.