Setting Learning Goal: Students will be able to analyze the influence of setting as it relates to other literary elements in a text

What an author does to create a believable setting: Researches the setting Uses strong concrete details and imagery so readers can easily picture each setting in the text. If this is done well even fantasy fiction and science fiction can have believable settings. It means you are “suspended in disbelief”; ie: you believe the make believe. Spends time deciding how much time he/she stresses setting in the story. The more it is discussed the more likely the setting will be influential to other literary elements in the narrative rather than just serving as a backdrop.

How does a believable setting influence other literary elements in a narrative? It creates a mood for the narrative Mood is the feeling the text creates for the reader. It creates struggles/obstacles for the characters It creates a strong visual image and concrete image of the time and place of the book so the reader can connect to the reading even if he/she did not live in this time period It pushes the plot along by adding new information that builds the story

How does a believable setting influence other literary elements in a narrative? It can be used as a foreshadowing technique Foreshadowing is hinting at something that might occur later in a text It can alert the reader that time and place is important to the text so that the author can insert a social or political commentary about the surroundings. Social/political commentary is an opinion about a problem in society It can serve as a contrast to other settings in the text to show a juxtaposition for the reader. Juxtaposition occurs when things/events are placed side by side or near each other for effect Can you think of other reasons?

Synthesize Tough Mudder Video and Graphic Organizer Tough Mudder

Examples of Setting Of Mice and Men Page 1 A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees---willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of ‘coons, and the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark. There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and beaten hard by the tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal limb of the giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.

Things to think about: What literary technique does Steinbeck use to create such believable settings? What mood does the setting create for readers?

Making predictions Now make some predictions about how the setting will influence the plot. Next, make some predictions regarding how the setting will influence the characters.

Setting Exit slip Take out a piece of paper and write down at least four the reasons setting is influential to other literary elements in a text