context1: Both women are patients at a mental institution, and act one sees the two men meet for the first time in the waiting room on visitors day. Karen has not long been institutionalised, and Frick is having a difficult time coping with her mental illness, while Patricia has been in and out of institutions for many years. The two men struggle to communicate under the <strong>circumstances</strong>, though even this breaks down in the face of their respective <strong>situations</strong>.
context2: The story describes Augie March's growth from childhood to a fairly stable maturity. Augie, with his brother Simon and the mentally abnormal George have no father and are brought up by their mother who is losing her eyesight, and a tyrannical grandmother in very humble <strong>circumstances</strong> in the rough parts of Chicago. Augie drifts from one <strong>situation</strong> to another in a free-wheeling manner—jobs, women, homes, education and lifestyle.