Slacker was released in 2016, which was a tumultuous time for small towns in America. Many small towns were still recovering from or had failed to recover from the 2008 recession, leaving small business owners fighting to stay afloat amidst economic inflation, competition with large businesses and online shopping, and crumbling infrastructure. The town of Sycamore demonstrates these struggles as the businesses on Main Street begin to dwindle and fail, losing business to the new mall and struggling to keep up with the way technology has impacted shoppers. These problems are compounded by the Department of Transportation’s plans to demolish the freeway exit leading to the heart of Sycamore. This exit has been in disrepair for years, and rather than invest in fixing it, the Department of Transportation has chosen to do away with it altogether. The next closest exit is brand new and drives consumers straight into the shopping mall, showing how infrastructural funding favors large businesses and neglects to invest in the infrastructure that keeps small towns alive. 

The smalltown setting of Sycamore influences one of the overarching conflicts of the novel as well as the

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