Historical, Social, and Cultural Context

Blankets takes place in the midwestern United States during the late 1980's and the early 1990's. His parents were fundamentalist Christians and raised Craig and his brother Phil to also be Christians. The beliefs of his parents are reflective of many fundamentalist Christians in the United States today.

There is a contrast between Craig's school and Raina's school. Raina, being at a much bigger school in a larger city, has students who are part of social trends, particularly the grunge trend. Grunge was a trend in the 1990's popularized by bands like Nirvana. Craig comments on the presence of the grunge style at Raina's school because his school doesn't have people like this.

Due to his strict Christian upbringing, Thompson felt that his budding sexuality was a sin and had difficulty with the physical aspects of his relationship with Raina. He would often imagine that Jesus was upset with him and this is illustrated in his art. This is also seen when he Thompson drew a naked woman, and experienced intense shame and began profusely apologizing to Jesus.

Thompson was also very involved in his church community. He is often seen communicating with his pastor and is encouraged to follow the path to become a pastor.

Thompson's family was also quite poor, a fact that Thompson was bullied for. This was evident when he was unable to ski or snowboard when the rest of the kids do when they go camping in the winter.