Setting Practice

"Mood" in a setting refers to

• How the main character feels

• How the setting makes the reader feel

• How the setting makes the writer feel

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 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 1980s

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

• Randolph is a mean person.

• Randolph is a prince or king.

• Randolph has an older sister.

• The setting doesn’t give us any clues about Randolph.

If the passage below were set at Lena’s birthday party, what could you infer?

Lena laughed loudly. “I can’t believe you did that!” she said, smiling.

• Lena might have received an unexpected present.

• Lena might be a very selfish character.

• Lena might be mad at her best friend.

• Lena might be talking to her uncle.

Which description of a setting would best create a mood of loneliness for a story?

• “The sun was bright, and the breeze was warm in the park. In the distance, there was the pleasant noise of children laughing.”

• “The restaurant was packed. The waitress balanced three dishes on her arm and moved carefully around the large, round tables. Everyone’s plates were full.”

• “At the amusement park, the ticket counter hadn’t opened yet. It was still too early. But the warm smell of hot dogs and pretzels was already filling the air with the promise of fun.”

• “The sky was gray that cool November afternoon in the empty playground. The swings were rusted. The wood was rotted. There was silence except for the wind blowing through the dead leaves.”

In the passage below, what can you infer about the setting of the story?

• 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?

• 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.

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”

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.

“Meg knelt at her mother’s feet. The warmth and light of the kitchen had relaxed her so that her attic fears were gone. The cocoa steamed fragrantly in the saucepan; geraniums bloomed on the window sills and there was a bouquet of tiny yellow chrysanthemums in the center of the table. The curtains, red, with a blue and green geometrical pattern were drawn and seemed to reflect their cheerfulness throughout the room. The furnace purred like a great, sleepy animal; the lights glowed with steady radiance…” (16)

• Harsh

• Comforting

• Excited

• Melancholic