Where It All Goes Down
Memphis, Tennessee
Paperboy takes place in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee in the 1950s, a time when segregation is still common practice in the South. Even though the Memphis that Victor grows up in is pretty idyllic, featuring quiet neighborhoods and nice lawns, there is a lot of racial tension going on… and thanks to Mam, Victor can't help but notice it. For example, at the zoo Victor realizes that Mam isn't treated the same way that he and other white people are:
Mam could get into the zoo for free after noon on Wednesdays if she wore her white uniform and went in the gate with me. She couldn't go to the zoo on any day that she wanted to like I could. More silly rules by grown-ups. (12.3)
The thing about the Memphis that Victor knows so well is that it's a perfectly nice, safe place for white families to live, but it doesn't treat its black residents nearly as well. They have a whole lot of restrictions on them. But at the end of the book, it's clear that Memphis is changing. There's even talk of integrating the schools:
My mother said it wouldn't be too long before all the schools in Memphis were Segregated. Rat's mother allowed as how she meant Integrated and my mother told her it was all the same thing. (20.23)
Even if people are against it, the world that they live in is about to change in a big way. It's a community on the cusp of change, just like Victor's a character who is changing, too.