Setting
Putting Us There
What Is Setting?
Setting is the time and place of a story or play. A story’s
setting may include
•its geographical location
•a specific time of day
•a time period
•the weather
How Is Setting Created?
Writers use details that appeal to the senses to create a
story’s setting.
© 2003 clipart.com
What do the
characters
smell?
taste?
hear?
feel?
see?
Setting and Mood
The setting can contribute to a story’s atmosphere, or
mood, and affect the way we feel.
I was very sleepy after lunch, because at home we always took a
siesta. It was usually a pleasant time of day, with the bedroom
darkened against the harsh afternoon sun, the drifting off into
sleep with the sound of Mother’s voice reading a story in one’s
mind, and, finally, the shrill, fussy voice of the ayah waking one for
tea.
from “By Any Other Name” by Santha Rama Rau
From “By Any Other Name” from Gifts of Passage by Santha Rama Rau. Copyright 1951 and renewed © 1979 by Santha Rama Rau. Originally appeared in The New
Yorker. Reproduced by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Setting and Tone
The setting can also express tone—the writer’s feelings
toward a subject or character.
The fifth night we passed St. Louis, and it was like the whole world
lit up. In St. Petersburg they used to say there was twenty or thirty
thousand people in St. Louis, but I never believed it till I see that
wonderful spread of lights at two o’clock that still night. There
warn’t a sound there; everybody was asleep.
from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Setting and Character
A story’s setting can help reveal a character’s
personality. Sometimes the character shapes his or her
environment. At other times, the environment shapes the
character.
It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note
of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had
stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room
had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Setting and Conflict
In some stories, the setting provides the main conflict
and can directly affect a story’s meaning.
The ledge, he saw, measuring it with his eye, was about as wide
as the length of his shoe, and perfectly flat. And every fifth row of
brick in the face of the building, he remembered—leaning out, he
verified this—was indented half an inch, enough for the tips of his
fingers, enough to maintain balance easily. It occurred to him that if
this ledge and wall were only a yard above ground—as he knelt at
the window staring out, this thought was the final confirmation of
his intention—he could move along the ledge indefinitely.
from “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket” by Jack Finney
From “Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket” by Jack Finney. Copyright © 1956 by Crowell Collier Publishing Company; copyright renewed © 1984 by Jack
Finney. Reproduced by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.
What Have You Learned?
Are the statements below true or false?
______
True
1. Writers create setting through details.
False
______
2. Setting rarely contributes to a story’s mood.
______
True
3. The setting is the time and place in which a
story occurs.
______
True
4. Characters can have conflict with the setting.
The End