Setting Passages

Setting is defined as the _______ and _______ of the story.

• tone and place
• time and place
• tone and plot
• time and plot

Which questions about the 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 why did the author write the story?

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

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 hospital in the future
• a summer morning in a castle
• a grocery store in the 1980's

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

• Randolph is a mean person.
• Randolph is a prince or king. 
• Randolph has an older sister. 
• The setting doesn't give me any clues about Randolph. 

In the passage below, what  can you infer about the setting of the story?
When the men reached Oregon, they stepped out of their wagons and embraced. The journey was long and dangerous, but they made it. Soon, their families would follow their trail in their own wagons, leaving their homes in the East to meet them in this brand new land: the West. 

• The story might take place on a different planet. 
• The story might take place in the past. 
• The story might take place in a desert. 
• We can't make any inferences about the setting from this passage. 

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 farmers 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 sest 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. 

Alex shut the lid to his laptop with a loud clap.  Some of the people sitting at the tables near him looked up from their books and gave him annoyed looks.  Alex realized that he had disturbed them and held up his hand apologetically.  The librarian turned toward him and shushed him loudly, perhaps louder than the noise that he had made.  Alex put the laptop in his bag and began walking toward the door.  He held his head down low.
Which of the following choices is evidence that the setting is a library?

• He held his head down low.
• Alex shut the lid to his laptop with a loud clap
• Alex realized that he had disturbed them and held up his hand apologetically. 
• The librarian turned toward him and shushed him loudly, perhaps louder than the noise that he had made.

What two questions does SETTING answer?

• What happened? Who was involved?
• Who is involved? Why are they involved?
• Who are the main characters and what is the problem?
• When and where does the story take place?

Setting includes everything EXCEPT: 

• Time 
• Place 
• Characters