Narrative Web
Location

Shantytown

Shantytown emerges as a modest community whose mayor draws presidential attention for a feel-good photo-op, a planned burst of positivity amid the Dow's 685-point plunge and Bartlet's superstitious unease. This place represents everyday struggle and outreach potential—tight-knit locals led by their mayor, embodying the human scale that contrasts White House crises and underscores the administration's drive to connect policy with people.
2 events
2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S4E2 · 20 Hours in America Part II
Market Plunge and the Canceled Photo‑Op

Shantytown is the intended backdrop for the photo‑op and is rhetorically present as the community whose mayor would be embraced; its implied people and narratives give the canceled photo its political weight.

Atmosphere

Absent physically but politically present—its concerns are at stake in the administration's choice to postpone outreach.

Functional Role

Target community for the administration's positive optics and constituent outreach.

Symbolic Significance

Represents everyday Americans and the small, human gestures that signal governmental care.

Referenced in staff banter (the Mayor of Shantytown) Imagined staging (President draping arm around mayor) shapes decision making Not physically in the scene but influential as political context
S4E2 · 20 Hours in America Part II
Hoover Handshake Unnerves Bartlet — Photo‑Op Postponed

Shantytown is the community source for the mayor who would appear in the photo‑op; it exists as the human subject of outreach and the reason the administration staged the feel‑good moment.

Atmosphere

Implied modesty and constituency need — a contrast to White House formality.

Functional Role

Origin of the positive PR subject; the community that the administration hopes to symbolically serve.

Symbolic Significance

Represents the people the President touches for political connection; a practical symbol of outreach.

Referenced as the Mayor's constituency — no physical presence in scene Serves as the narrative justification for the photo‑op

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

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