Ivy and Bean

The setting is a literary device that links to where the story takes place. The setting creates the environment for the characters and their actions. Aside from the shopping trip in Chapter 2, Ivy and Bean stick to the cul-de-sac named Pancake Court, where the titular characters live with their families. The street name is unique and silly, matching the girls’ personalities. They, too, are eccentric and humorous.

Barrows never names the town or state in the first book or the series, and the omission implies that the city or state isn’t important to the story. Based on Blackall’s drawings of the cul-de-sac, the neighborhood is generic and appears upper-middle class. None of the houses appear overly distinct, and they look like the type of houses occupied by people with dependable jobs and incomes. Neither Bean nor Ivy worry about shelter or food. As Ivy asks her mother for a banana, she assumes the fruit is there for her. However, the setting and plot don’t designate wealth or spoiled kids. For example, Nancy’s mother doesn’t offer to buy the $40 skirt that Nancy tries on, suggesting that she wants to educate her daughter about thoughtful consumerism.