E1.6(D): How does setting influence theme?

How does setting influence theme?

Open Ended

Define "setting"

Open Ended

Define "theme"

Multiple Choice

What is the setting of the passage below?

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

• winter in a train station of a busy city

• a summer morning in a castle

• a hospital in the future

• a grocery store in the 1980's

Multiple Choice

What can you infer about the setting based on the passage below?

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cooking stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar—except a small hole, dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap-door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.

• The story is set in a place where the weather is always mild and pleasant.

• The story is set near a river that sometimes floods.

• 
  The story is set on a farm where only very rich people can afford to live.

• The story is set on a farm where there are sometimes cyclones.

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. So how is setting connected to theme? 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 nursing home

• A forest

• A ninth grade center

• a lawyer's office

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. So how is setting connected to theme? 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 often have divisions between them."

• a nice library on a college campus

• A middle school with a football field

• A railroad track separating two parts of town

• a home with several similar houses close to it