SettingTime and Place

What is the setting?• The setting of a story is the place where

the story happens and the time when it happens.

• The setting can be real or imaginary.• Characters interact with the setting to

show and tell a story. • Setting helps the reader share what the

characters see, hear, smell, and touch.

When your focus is setting, look for words that tell about:• Time of day, day of the week, month, or

season (today, 3:00, Sunday, April, Fall)• Specific dates or historical details (July 4,

1776)• Place names, such as city, state, or

country (Cambridge, Maryland, America)• Physical surroundings, such as weather,

buildings, and landscape (rainy, castle, fields)

Use Picture Clues to Identify SettingWinterNightSnowyFrozen LakeColdWoodsHouseOutside

Farm Smell of HayBarn Animal SoundsDay DirtGrass Outside

SpaceshipDayShadowEngine NoiseTown/CityFieldsCloudsHoveringRed Light

What words describe the settings?

The Setting Supports the Plot

• The setting of the story should make sense to the plot.

• Which of the pictures below shows a setting that would make sense in a story of a dog sled race like the Iditarod?

How does the setting of this tall tale support the plot of the story?

Paul Bunyan's Kitchen retold by S. E. SchlosserOne winter, Paul Bunyan came to log along the Little Gimlet in Oregon. Ask any old timer who was logging that winter, and they'll tell you I ain't lying when I say his kitchen covered about ten miles of territory. That stove, now, she were a grand one. An acre long, taller than a scrub pine, and when she was warm, she melted the snow for about twenty miles around. The men logging in the vicinity never had to put on their jackets 'til about noon on a day when Paul Bunyan wanted flapjacks.

Hint: A tall tale usesexaggeration.

A tall tale has impossible events. The setting is exaggerated to support the impossible events. Example: the description of the kitchen.

How does the setting help the reader better understand the characters?It was quite a site to see, that cook of Paul Bunyan's making flapjacks. Cookie would send four of the boys up with a side of hog tied to each of their snowshoes, and they'd skate around up there keeping the griddle greased while Cookie and seven other men flipped flapjacks for Paul Bunyan. Took them about an hour to make enough flapjacks to fill him up. The rest of us had to wait our turn.

Hint: How Does the setting bring the characters together?

The setting causes the characters to work together. They need each other because the griddle and pancakes are so large. The characters help each other because they care about each other.

Make a connection between the setting and how the boys feel at the end of the story.

We had one mishap that winter. Babe the Blue Ox accidentally knocked a bag of dried peas off the countertop when he swished his tail. Well, them peas flew so far and so fast out of the kitchen that they knocked over a dozen loggers coming home for lunch, clipped the tops off of several pine trees, and landed in the hot spring. We had pea soup to eat for the rest of the season, which was okay by me, but them boys whose Mama's insisted they bath more than once a year were pretty sore at losing their swimming hole.

The setting changes. The hot spring the boys swim in is now filled with pea soup. Now the boys have nowhere to swim and are angry.

The dialogue and stage directions in plays are supported by the setting.

• The dialogue (what characters say) can give details about the setting.

• The stage directions (where the characters move, what they do, and how they show their feelings)

Read the excerpt from the play on the next few slides. Take notes on how the dialogue and stage directions support the setting.

Mexican Trio by Linell WohlersSETTING: The woods. Backdrop shows trees and

vegetation. At right there is a “hollow log” (See Production Notes), with opening facing audience. Rocks

are scattered around stage.AT RISE: SEÑORA TEJON enters right and walks around,

picking up rocks. CONEJO sneaks on left and hides behind tree. After a moment, CONEJO

springs out and grabs TEJON as she passes.CONEJO: Ah, Señora Tejon! Now you will be my dinner to make up for all the times that you have tricked me!

TEJON (Nervously): How can you think of dinner at a time like this? You should not be thinking of food, but

shelter!CONEJO (Puzzled): Shelter? Why?TEJON (Shouting): Because of the hailstorm, of course!

(Pointing to sky) Haven’t you noticed the threatening sky?CONEJO (Looking up): But Señora Tejon, I see no clouds.TEJON (Frantically): The most dangerous kind of hailstorm

comes with no clouds! Why, some of those hailstones could be the size of melons!CONEJO (Frightened; releasing TEJON): Really? Where can I go?

TEJON: If you have any sense at all, Señor Conejo, you will crawl into that hollow log (Points) and wait for the

storm to pass. (Hurries away) As for me, I must hurry back to my children! (TEJON exits. CONEJO, in panic,

rushes over to log and wiggles in, tail first.)

How did the dialogueand stage directionssupport the events in the play?Could the setting be another character?

The setting moved the events in the play along. The storm (setting) was used as a way for Tejon to trick Canejo. Canejo used the setting to hide when he felt panic. The setting could be seen as a character in this play because it is as important to the plot as the characters. Without the storm the events in the plot would not move along or be as interesting.

The setting can help create a mood.

• Mood is the atmosphere or feelings created by a literary work.

• They can be positive (joyous) or negative (dreary).

Read the poem on thenext slide and identify how the setting helps create themood.

A Fish in a Spaceship by Kenn NesbittA fish in a spaceship is flying through school. A dinosaur's dancing on top of a stool. The library's loaded with orange baboons, in purple tuxedos with bows and balloons. The pigs on the playground are having a race while pencils parade in their linens and lace. As camels do cartwheels and elephants fly, bananas are baking a broccoli pie. A hundred gorillas are painting the walls, while robots on rockets careen through the halls. Tomatoes are teaching in all of the classes. Or maybe, just maybe, I need some new glasses.

The mood is humorous or comical. The setting is filled with impossible, funny descriptions. For example dinosaurs dancing on top of a stool.

SETTING- a Recap…• The time and location in which a story

takes place is called the setting.  For some stories the setting is very important, while for others it is not.  There are several aspects of a story's setting to consider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story):

5 elements to setting

• Place - geographical location.  Where is the action of the story taking place?

• Time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc)

• Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?

• Social conditions - What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story contain local color (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)?

• Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story?  Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?

**Setting uses imagery to paint a picture of a story.

Bonus Word- Imagery

• Imagery consists of descriptive words and phrases that re-create sensory experiences for the reader. Imagery usually appeals to one or more of the five senses- sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch- to help the reader imagine exactly what is being described.

Think of a place you have been, and use

imagery to describe a

setting.

Write a well developed

paragraph to describe a setting,

any setting.