Setting

Setting, Mood, and Tone

Setting and Character

Setting and Conflict

Practice

Setting

Feature Menu

Setting draws us into the world of a story. Details of setting tell us

• where and when events are happening

• how the situation feels

• who the characters are

• what challenges the characters face

Setting

Details about a place usually are an essential part of a story.

• The setting may include people’s customs—how they live, dress, eat, and behave.

Setting

Setting also may reveal a time frame.

time of day

era

season

Setting

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Setting can add to a story’s emotional effect—its mood or atmosphere.

foreboding, mysterious

relaxed, carefree

lonely, sad

Setting, Mood, and Tone

Details of setting also help express tone—the writer’s attitude toward a subject or character.

The furniture of the hut was neither gorgeous nor much in the way. The rocking-chairs and sofas were not present, and never had been, but they were represented by two three-legged stools, a pine-board bench four feet long, and two empty candle-boxes. The table was a greasy board on stilts, and the table-cloth and napkins had not come—and they were not looking for them, either.

from Roughing It by Mark Twain

Listen to this passage. What is Mark Twain’s tone? What details help create that tone?

Setting, Mood, and Tone

What details reveal the location?

What details reveal the situation? What mood do they create?

Setting, Mood, and Tone

Quick Check

The water is now just below my windows on the ninth floor. There is nothing to do but watch. The water is filthy—there had been the six-week garbage strike, and all the city’s garbage is awash—and the seagulls are everywhere, feasting.

from Notes from a Bottle by James Stevenson

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Setting also can reveal character.

• What do these details tell you about Meg?

Setting and Character

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Meg sat back in the stylish chair and chatted on her cell phone. The shopping bags at her feet bore the colorful labels of many different stores—but each seemed to have “fashionable” and “expensive” written all over it.

In some stories, the characters’ environment

• provides the main conflict

• directly affects the story’s meaning

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Setting and Conflict

Work alone or with a partner to plan a story in which setting will play a major role. Use a chart like the one shown here.Time: Late one winter night, early 1950s

Place: Run-down mansion in rural Scotland

Details of setting that affect mood or tone: Outside—dense fog; howling dogInside—ticking clock; cold, damp rooms

Details of setting that reveal character: Bare rooms with few chairs; no rugs; dim light; hundreds of books in piles and bookcases

Details of setting that affect conflict and meaning: Isolated mansion; doors locked and barred

Practice

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