Few things are quite as stressful for any teenager than being uprooted from familiar surroundings and being forced against your will to start over in a strange and unfamiliar place entirely populated by complete strangers who are conditioned to view your arrival with a certain suspicion. Even today that is true when the difference between Barbados and New England is hardly so stark. Kit’s longing for the sunny climes and open beaches of her home are contrasted with the far less hospitable topography of Connecticut and the difference between her view of the world and that of those she meets in Wethersfield cannot be entirely applied to mere cultural differences. A recurring motif in the novel serves to solidify its theme that the effect of geography is not confined merely to the land.