Setting

Setting

The place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.

Multiple Choice

How do you know what the setting of a story is? Sometimes, a narrator will tell you where and when the story occurs right away. Often, though, you’ll have to look for clues to determine the setting. Try to find words or phrases that tell you what it looks like or sounds like where the characters are. Characters can also give clues about the setting. Be sure that your inferences about the setting are backed up by evidence from the text.

Read the following passage:

As Jaden hurried down the street, the wind swept the snow along the sidewalk and hid her footsteps, so that it looked as if no one had passed. Above her, the cold, silent skyscrapers of the city loomed. The whole block was eerily silent in the snowstorm, and she pulled her coat tightly around her. Jaden had only moved here a few months before. She came because she wanted to be a designer. But right now, she was frightened.

Which detail from the passage indicates the setting?

• “Above her, the cold, silent skyscrapers of the city loomed.”

• “Jaden had only moved here a few months before.”

• “But right now, she was frightened.”

• “She came because she wanted to be a designer.”

Multiple Choice

Setting tells you where and when a story occurs. Setting includes two things: time and place. Time includes the time period. It can also include elapsed time, or how much time passes for the characters. The place is where a story happens, including details about what that space looks, sounds or smells like or what it is like to live there.

Read the following passage from Alice in Wonderland:

Once in the wood, she was anxious to get back to her right size again, and then to get into that lovely garden. But how? Peeping over a mushroom, she beheld a large blue caterpillar sitting on the top with its arms folded...

Which detail from the text provides a clue to the place where this passage takes place?

• “A large blue caterpillar..”

• “Once in the wood…"

• “…with its arms folded”

• “...get back to her right size again...”

Multiple Choice

Setting can symbolize, or stand for, other elements of a story. For example, when setting changes, a character might change. Setting can also symbolize what a character is feeling in a particular scene. Setting can also help us understand the choices that characters make.

Read the following passage:

Brody had been excited to go to the beach but when he got there and saw how crowded it was, he became annoyed. The sun twinkled in the sky, a warm yellow globe. The sound of the ocean drummed in his ears and the sand itched his ankles and feet. Beside him, his sister slurped loudly on an ice cream cone. “Could you not?” Brody asked.

Which detail about the setting tells us that Brody is annoyed?

• “The sun twinkled in the sky, a warm yellow globe.”

• “The sound of the ocean drummed in his ears and the sand itched his ankles and feet.”

• “Brody had been excited to go to the beach...”

Multiple Choice

Setting can also affect the plot, or the events that make up the story or novel. Some plots can take place only in certain times and places.

Which option describes a plot that can only take place in a specific setting?

• A poor, hardworking woman becomes a successful chef.

• A young woman falls in love with her family’s enemy.

• A selfish child tries to be a better person.

• A ship’s captain chases a whale across the sea.

Multiple Choice

In addition to plot and character, setting can shape the mood of a story. A story’s mood is its general atmosphere or overall feeling. The mood of a story can be energetic, nervous, peaceful or many other feeling words.

Which of the following settings suggest a tense and nervous mood?

• A city playground full of laughing, playing children and parents.

• A long line of people waiting for a few concert tickets.

• A stream running through a quiet, isolated forest.

• An empty mall parking lot early on a Sunday morning.

Multiple Choice

Setting can often be connected to theme. A theme is a universal message of a story or novel. Themes are about big topics, like exploration, freedom, love and loss. Themes can include morals or lessons. Certain times and places lead to explorations of certain big topics. If a novel is set during a war, for example, it might have themes about freedom and loyalty.

Which option is the most likely setting for a story with the theme “humans vs nature?”

• A forest

• A middle school

• A nursing home

• A lawyer’s office

Multiple Choice

If that passage below were set at Kimberly's birthday party, what could you infer?

Kimberly laughed loudly. "I can't believe you did that!" she said, smiling.

• Kimberly might have received an unexpected present.

• Kimberly might be talking to her uncle.

• Kimberly might be mad at her best friend.

• Kimberly might be a very selfish character.

Multiple Choice

In the passage below, what can you infer about Michael using clues from the setting?

One summer day, Michael the Great slept alone in his room in the castle at Reddington. The light of the morning seeped slowly through his curtains. Michael blinked against the day, smiling as his dream came to a peaceful conclusion.

• Michael has an older sister.

• Michael is a mean person.

• The setting doesn't give me any clues about Michael.

• Michael is a prince or king.

Multiple Choice

Why is the setting important in a story?

• It tells us what the character trait is.

• It tells us the ending.

• It helps us visualize what the land and characters look like in a story.

Multiple Choice

Setting is defined as the _______and _______ of the story.

• tone and plot

• tone and place

• time and plot

• time and place

Multiple Choice

If you were to make a right out of this classroom and go up one flight of stairs what would your setting be?

• 7th grade floor

• The cafeteria

• The bathroom

• Mrs. Conrad's classroom