Warm-up: Fill in the following blanks with the
correct word.
1.
The ________ is both where and when the story
occurs. This helps the reader imagine the scene.
2. _____ is created by the language an author uses to
show a certain attitude toward his or her subject.
3. _______ is the effect that the story has upon the
reader.
Answers to Warm-up: Fill in the following blanks
with the correct word.
1.
The setting is both where and when the story
occurs. This helps the reader imagine the scene.
2. Tone is created by the language an author uses to
show a certain attitude toward his or her subject.
3. Mood is the effect that the story has upon the
reader.
Setting, Mood, and Tone
LESSON 38
Standards
 9RL1F.a: The student locates and analyzes such
elements in fiction as language (i.e., diction, imagery,
symbolism, figurative language), character
development, setting and mood, viewpoint,
foreshadowing, and irony.
 9RL2.b: The student evaluates how an author’s
choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a
work.
Additional Information about Setting
 Setting can also be more than a description. Setting
can play an active role in a story. It can give insight
into a character and make clear a conflict. Setting
can affect what a character does in a story and the
mood of a story. Setting can serve as a symbol of a
larger idea. In a person-against-nature conflict, the
setting challenges the character.
Additional Information about Tone
 Authors create tone and mood through word choice.
Like the tone of a speaker’s voice, the manner in
which an author tells the story establishes the tone of
the writing. A comical tone would be light or
humorous like Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. A formal tone would be detailed
and precise like Charles Dickens’s David
Copperfield.
Additional Information about Mood
 A mystery story provokes a frightened or puzzled
reaction. A romance should inspire a loving, caring
mood. An author creates mood with carefully chosen
language and ideas that will not break the mood.
In Summary:
Setting Can:
 shed light on a character
 explain a conflict
 act as a symbol
 create a mood
 challenge a character
Tone can be Defined by:
 types of words the author uses
 descriptions of the setting
 type of information given
 types of characters or action
 how characters speak or think
Mood Defined By:
 how the story affects the reader
 descriptions author provides
 atmosphere of the setting
From Sherwood Anderson’s collection of short stories, Winesburg, Ohio
(1)Upon the half decayed veranda of a
small frame house that stood near the edge of
a ravine near the town of Winesburg, Ohio, a
fat little old man walked nervously up and
down. (2)Across a long field that had been
seeded for clover but that had produced only a
dense crop of yellow mustard weeds, he could
see the public highway along which went a
wagon filled with berry pickers returning from
the fields. (3)The berry pickers, youths and
maidens, laughed and shouted boisterously.
(4)A boy clad in a blue shirt leaped from the
wagon and attempted to drag after him one of
the maidens, who screamed and protested
shrilly. (5)The feet of the boy in the road
kicked up a cloud of dust that floated across
the face of the departing sun. (6)Over the long
field came a thin girlish voice. (7)”Oh, you
Wing Biddlebaum, comb your hair; it’s falling
into your eyes,” commanded the voice to the
man, who was bald and whose nervous little
hands fiddled about the bare white forehead
as though arranging a mass of tangled locks.
1.
What is the setting of this scene from
Anderson’s short story?
A. a porch
B. a car
C. a berry patch
D. a farm road
Hint: The words field, clover, weeds, highway,
and dust help to depict the setting.
Answer: D. a farm road
2. The author of the passage creates a light mood
mainly through
A. hints that there is a mystery
B. the description of the setting
C. characters’ actions and words
D. a silly tone that lacks details
Hint: To determine the mood ask yourself how
this passage made you feel as a reader.
Answer: C. characters’ actions and words
Group Practice
 On the next slide is an excerpt from War of the
Worlds by H.G. Wells. The narrator visits London
after the Martians have attacked the city. While you
are reading, look for words that help establish mood,
tone, and setting.
(1)The farther I penetrated into London, the profounder
grew the stillness. (2)But it was not so much the stillness of
death – it was the stillness of suspense, of expectation. (3)At any
time the destruction that had already singed the northwestern
borders of the metropolis and had annihilated Ealing and Kilburn,
might strike among these houses and leave them smoking ruins.
(4)It was a city condemned and derelict…
(5)In South Kensington the streets were clear of dead and
of black powder. (6)It was near South Kensington that I first
heard the howling. (7)It crept almost imperceptibly upon my
senses. (8)It was a sobbing alternation of two notes, “Ulla, ulla,
ulla, ulla,” keeping on perpetually. (9)When I passed streets that
ran northward it grew in volume, and houses and buildings
seemed to deaden and cut it off again. (10)It came in a full tide
down Exhibition Road. (11)I stopped, staring towards Kensington
Gardens, wondering at this strange, remote wailing. (12)It was
as if that mighty desert of houses had found a voice for
its fear and solitude.
(13)”Ulla, ulla, ulla, ulla,” wailed that superhuman note –
great waves of sound sweeping down the broad, sunlit roadway,
between the tall buildings on each side. (14)I turned northwards,
marveling, towards the iron gates of Hyde Park. (15)I had half a
mind to break into the Natural History Museum and find my way
up to the summits of the towers, in order to see across the park.
(16)But I decided to keep to the ground, where quick hiding was
possible, and so went on up the Exhibition Road. (17)All the large
mansions on each side of the road were empty and still, and my
footsteps echoed against the sides of the houses. (18)At the top,
near the park gate, I came upon a strange sight – a bus
overturned, and the skeleton of a horse picked clean.

The author repeats
stillness to emphasize a
detail of the setting and
to appeal to the
reader’s senses.

The use of condemned
and derelict both
explains the setting
and adds mood and
tone to the passage.

The notion of a mighty
desert of homes
describes a wasteland
setting and adds a tone
of somber sadness for
what has been lost.

The strange sight of the
horse adds to the
mysterious mood while
it also describes what
the character is seeing
and hearing.
1. How does the setting impact the plot?
A. It helps readers to appreciate the type of man this
narrator is during a crisis.
B. Readers would not understand the characters’
actions without setting.
C. It shows how a well-known place, London, has
been destroyed.
D. It helps to define the threat that the narrator
explains as he walks.
1. How does the setting impact the plot?
A. It helps readers to appreciate the type of man this
narrator is during a crisis.
B. Readers would not understand the
characters’ actions without setting.
C. It shows how a well-known place, London, has
been destroyed.
D. It helps to define the threat that the narrator
explains as he walks.
2. What mood would the reader MOST likely feel while
reading this scene?
A. suspense
B. joy
C. loneliness
D. confusion
2. What mood would the reader MOST likely feel while
reading this scene?
A. suspense
B. joy
C. loneliness
D. confusion
3. How does the setting affect the character narrating the
passage?
A. It helps him to understand what has happened.
B. It causes him to think about the future.
C. It makes him long for a time passed.
D. It makes him wonder and marvel.
3. How does the setting affect the character narrating the
passage?
A. It helps him to understand what has happened.
B. It causes him to think about the future.
C. It makes him long for a time passed.
D. It makes him wonder and marvel.
4. Which words did the author MOST likely use to
establish the tone of the passage?
A. “I puzzled over this for a time…”
B. “the profounder grew the stillness…”
C. “great waves of sound sweeping…”
D. “The voice grew stronger and stronger…”
4. Which words did the author MOST likely use to
establish the tone of the passage?
A. “I puzzled over this for a time…”
B. “the profounder grew the stillness…”
C. “great waves of sound sweeping…”
D. “The voice grew stronger and stronger…”
5. Which words BEST help to establish the mood in this
passage?
A. “nothing above the housetops on the north side”
B. “All the large mansions on each side of the road”
C. “---it was the stillness of suspense, of expectation.”
D. “It came in a full tide down Exhibition Road.”
5. Which words BEST help to establish the mood in this
passage?
A. “nothing above the housetops on the north side”
B. “All the large mansions on each side of the road”
C. “---it was the stillness of suspense, of
expectation.”
D. “It came in a full tide down Exhibition Road.”
Standards
 9RL1F.a: The student locates and analyzes such
elements in fiction as language (i.e., diction, imagery,
symbolism, figurative language), character
development, setting and mood, viewpoint,
foreshadowing, and irony.
 9RL2.b: The student evaluates how an author’s
choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a
work.
Exit Slip:
 Write one (1) word that you remember from today’s
lesson.
 Write a phrase about today’s lesson.
 Write a summarizing sentence about today’s lesson.
 Get with a partner and compare what you have
written. Choose what you will share together when
called upon.