Responding to Literature: Setting, Context, and Theme

Setting Setting is the time and place of the action in a work of fiction, poetry, or drama. The spatial setting is the place or places in which action unfolds. The temporal setting is the time.

General and Particular Setting General setting is the time period and the rough location in which the story is set. Particular settings include specific dates and times or locations for events in the story.

Setting Continued Setting can provide historical or cultural context for the action, set an emotional tone, and evoke certain associations in readers’ minds. Sometimes setting is explicit; and other times, it is vague or is implicit (implied). Either way, look for adjectives, diction, and historical context to find the setting.

Context Context is the background (sometimes the author background), environment, setting, or surrounding of events of occurrences in a piece of literature. This includes: Historical context Cultural context Social context Political context

Theme A story theme is the central idea, moral, thesis, or message conveyed to readers. Themes are not always clear. Different readers may have different versions of the theme. Consider all elements of literature when finding the theme.

Interpreting Theme When interpreting the theme of a text, consider the following: What did the characters learn? What change occurs and the conclusion of the story? How is the conflict/problem resolved? Why is the story happening?

Common Themes Family/Childhood/Home Power/Weakness Poverty/Wealth Race/Class Cross-Culture Gender Love/Hate Law/Justice Life/Death

Responding to Literature

Responding to the Text When responding to the text, you need to analyze the literary elements (plot, character, setting, conflict, etc.) provided in the text, and then respond to the topic question. Avoid summarizing the text Avoid using generalizations Avoid walking outside the text unless to prove a specific point Avoid being vague or “writing around the topic”

Introduce the Text Introduce the author and the text. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin discusses… The title of a short story, poem, song should be in quotations. The title of a book should be italicized or underlined.

Using a Citation When quoting the text, use either a direct or indirect quote. Be sure to put the author and the page number in the parentheses. “And I didn’t write Sonny or send him anything for a long time” (Baldwin 63). NOTE: Keep your citations to about 2-3 sentences, if your response is only about a page.

SLAMS When responding to an open-ended question, try to use this acronym. S: sentences: avoid poor sentence structure, like run-ons and fragments L: line length: your response should be the appropriate response-length. A: answer all the question(s) being asked. M: mechanics are very important; re-read your response aloud to identify careless errors. S: support all your response with evidence, details, and citations from the text.