Setting of Ava Adore
The setting should be suburban Texas-- the Dallas, Fort Worth area. The setting itself, while conservative, isn’t cowboys, rednecks and constant bible-thumping for the most part. It isn’t the bible-belt. It’s a quiet sort of conservationism that will help add to the conflict of the story.
The Setting and Ava:
The setting has a certain expectation of what Ava’s role as a woman is. Growing up she is surrounded by housewives, young women looking for Mrs. degrees, and billboards for antiabortion. All of this shapes an idea of what being a woman is supposed to mean-- married (to a man), child-bearing, home maker. All of it she sees in her mother and her grandmother, who also grew up with the suburban Texas perspective, and who are her closest representations of what it means to be female.
In school she will be taught abstinence while antiabortion protesters swarm outside.
In a way, the setting is it’s own quiet villain. It will offer an opponent to who she is as a person-- bisexual, sexually active, no desire for motherhood-- and lead to certain actions she will take because she thinks it’s her only choice.
In her adulthood, the setting will make the fact that she gets an abortion in her adulthood more effective. Because of the way abortions work in Texas, you have to get an ultrasound first, which will allow Ava to really truly react to her pregnancy and her revulsion to it. It will also add more tension to the fact that she is a married woman getting an abortion.
The Setting and Raquel:
Much like Ava, Raquel’s sexuality also opposes the ideals of the setting. Being much louder in her sexuality than Ava, Raquel will also be met with more scorn.
Additionally, Raquel is Latina. While suburbia aren’t as obvious, the racism is still there, and so is the fear. Growing up, even in a consistent suburban area, it was normal to be afraid, of the cops and being sent back to Mexico. Brought across the border while still an infant, Raquel has no choice in her fear and knows that it’s more that just an cruel but harmless threat, especially after her father was deported in her early teens. The paranoia that comes with her environment weighs on her heavily.
The Setting and Lee:
As a passing trans man, Lee feels like that part of his identity is the skeleton in his closet for his family. Lee offers an interesting opposition to Raquel, whose identity is very out in the open but who gets little support. Lee’s family technically have supported and helped him through his transition. However, Lee’s identity and part in the LGBTQA+ community is never spoken about, especially not outside the immediate nuclear family. They fear their unforgiving environment, but there is also an unspoken shame to their divergence from the normal.
There is also the contrast between Lee at home and Lee his out-of-state college. At home he feels hidden away, but at college he is actually able to express his pride and be a part of the community.
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