Stung Meanchey in The Rent Collector: Importance of a Novel's Setting Camron Wright 12th Grade

Many writers use a setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the setting may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Using the novel The Rent Collector, write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole. Camron Wright’s The Rent Collector portrays the story of Sang Ly, a mother living in the Cambodian dump Stung Meanchey, who seeks for a life better than she is able to provide for her son Nisay. Serving as the forefront of the novel, Stung Meanchey serves as a community to Sang Ly and her family as well as her neighbors & other pickers. Not only does Stung Meanchey’s setting serve as a constant reminder of Sang Ly’s want to provide a better life for her son, but it also serves as a sense of community like any other population and as a reflection of Sopeaps’s portrayal of herself. The setting of the country within The Rent Collector sets the values of a community, a reminder of betterment, and a haven for Sopeap throughout the course of the novel.

Despite living in Stung Meanchey, Sang Ly highlights many of the communal aspects similar to most populations: whether it may be the occupations, daily life, or social hierarchy. “The...