The story takes place on an ocean liner (= a passenger ship) going from San Fransisco to Yokohoma-Japan right after WWI. These details are important because after wars, especially World wars, there is a lot of passenger traffic. Refugees try to get away from the horrors of war and start a new life elsewhere. There are no passenger planes at the time. This is why the narrator and Mr Kelada couldn't get a single bedroom on board of the ship despite their wealth. The fact the story takes place on a ship is important because it provides a microcosm of society, bringing together people of different classes and nationalities that might not have met otherwise. The journey is long (crossing the Pacific by boat takes about 2 weeks) thus, the people on board are ' stuck ' with each other as they have nowhere to run. Long boat rides are a good opportunity to get to know another person well and maybe even develop true friendships. The timing is important because the story deals with prejudice and racism and even anti-Semitism all of which were prevalent across Europe and the United States before WWII (making it easy for the Nazis to gain power in Germany). We see that even Kelada who suffers from the racist and prejudiced approach of his companion is at times racist himself (he's all for the Englishmen sticking together when abroad).
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