" Maxwell Street is in the heart of downtown Chicago in an area that is not known to be upscale. It is known as a place where different ethnic groups can mix and buy and sell things at cheap prices. She speaks of the "Big toy warehouse on Halstead Street," that "burned down yesterday---see there? ---The smoke still rising and drifting across the Dan Ryan Expressway." Her descriptions let the reader know that she is in downtown Chicago when she mentions Halstead Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. By the way she talks about Chicago you can tell she lives there and is familiar with downtown living. The first thing holding her back from a life like that of Barbie, is that she is from an underprivileged neighborhood in downtown Chicago. .
The flea market where the narrator is shopping, is certainly nothing like a nice mall in the suburbs of Chicago. The other things that are for sale at the flea market show that it is not a luxurious place to shop. The narrator describes, "on the street next to some tool bits, and platform shoes with the heels all squashed, and a fluorescent green wicker waste basket, and aluminum foil, and hubcaps, and a pink shag rug, and windshield wiper blades, and dusty mason jars, and a coffee can full of rusty nails" as some of the items next to the Barbie clothes at the flea market. She emphasizes the types of common, and certainly not fancy items that can be found at the flea market as she depicts, "next to the boxed pies, and bright orange toilet brushes, and rubber gloves, and wrench sets, and bouquets of feather flowers, and glass towels racks, and steel wool, and the Alvin and the Chipmunks records" as items near to dolls she admires. The flea market is not the place you would expect to find good condition items like Barbie dolls right off the toy store shelf. Instead, the narrator finds "Everybody today selling toys, all of them damaged with water and smelling like smoke.
