In Joyce Carol Oates “A Brutal Murder in a Public Place” the airport setting highlights the unequal relationship between humans and animals, where animals’s suffering becomes entertainment for people. The airport is a place designated for human travel, closed off with plate-glass windows where wild animals aren’t supposed to appear. When the bird is spotted inside, the narrator notes how, “The seated travellers continue to look around, quizzical and bemused” (Oates 22). It is very obvious how the bird is panicked and anxious to escape, yet no one seems alarmed. The glass windows symbolize…