Setting, Tone, & Style

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?

• “Once in the wood…"
• “A large blue caterpillar..”
• “...get back to her right size again...”
• “...with its arms folded”

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:
Gilberto 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?” Gilberto asked.

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

• “The sound of the ocean drummed in his ears and the sand itched his ankles and feet.”
• “The sun twinkled in the sky, a warm yellow globe.”
• “Beside him, his sister slurped loudly on an ice cream cone.”
  
• “Gilberto had been excited to go to the beach...”
  

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.

Which questions about a story will the setting answer?

• What is the author’s attitude toward the characters?

• Where and when does the story take place?

• Who are the people the story is about?

• Why and when did the author write the story?

Setting can give clues about a story’s ________.

• plot

• conflict

• mood

• all of the above

Which of the following might describe the setting of a story?

• a frog and a witch

• happy and loving

• a high school in 1956

• love is stronger than fear

Which of the following has the strongest positive tone?

• pleased

• happy

• thrilled

• satisfied

The moment the words were out of my mouth, I wished I could take them back. I didn't mean to hurt Keith's feelings. He is such a kind person, and he certainly doesn't deserve to be treated so poorly. I guess the stress from school has been weighing on me heavily lately. Instead of taking my problems out on him, I need to deal directly with what is causing the stress.

What is the tone of the passage above?

• funny

• regretful

• admiring

• angry

What words created that tone?

The moment the words were out of my mouth, I wished I could take them back. I didn't mean to hurt Keith's feelings. He is such a kind person, and he certainly doesn't deserve to be treated so poorly. I guess the stress from school has been weighing on me heavily lately. Instead of taking my problems out on him, I need to deal directly with what is causing the stress.

• take them back

• kind person

• stress from school

• Instead of

What is the connotation of the underlined word in the following sentences?

Lennie hesitated, backed away, looked wildly at the brush line as though he contemplated running for his freedom. George said coldly, “You gonna give me that mouse or do I have to sock you?”

• Positive

• Negative

• Neutral