Where It All Goes Down
This Side of the Highway, 1970s America
The town in which Feathers takes place is never named, but we get a full description of the place—at least the side of it where Frannie, her family, and her friends live. See, the area is split by a highway (see the "Symbols section" for more on this), with white people living on the other side and black people living on what's referred to as "this" side. The other side—though literally just across a road—is completely a mystery. Check out how solid this divide is:
Imagine, my brother signed. Imagine if somebody built a bridge right outside our window and we could just walk across the highway and be on the other side.
We were sitting on the window seat, staring out at the wet snow, the gray sky and the cars moving along the highway—tiny and slow in the distance. I was thinking about the Jesus Boy. There weren't white people on this side of the highway. (3.1-2)
The highway is basically a convenient landmark for distinguishing between the white side of town and the black side of town. People don't really cross over… not because it's illegal, but because it goes against what is socially acceptable. To this end, as readers, we don't cross over either.
This side of the highway is predictable, comfortable, and familiar to the black residents in the community. Frannie even tells her brother that she loves it here; she thinks it's beautiful:
I shook my head. It's fine here. It's beautiful.
It was beautiful. Somebody had written some names on our building, and even though all the grown-ups complained about it and tried to wash them off, I secretly loved the bright colors of the spray paint… (3.15-16)
But the fact of the matter is that no matter how much they love "this" side of the highway, it's still unfair that the residents are stuck here—they aren't allowed to cross over and know what it's like on the other side. "This" side of the highway is both home sweet home and a place where people are stuck.