S2 Exercise 15: Setting (1)
SETTING
The success of a work of fiction is, to a great extent dependent of the author’s success in creating believable and atmospheric settings.
When you think about setting you should consider where the action takes place but you must also remember to take into account when the action takes place as this is often equally important.
Examine carefully the following extracts from various novels and, in each case, consider the author’s success in describing a particular setting. Highlight or underline key words and phrases and decide what mood the writer has created in his/her description.
The first one has been done for you.
- “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty, hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats – the hobbit was fond of visitors”.
|
NOTES · “Hole in the ground” sounds less than inviting · We are warned that this is not like most holes, which tend to be ‘nasty’, dirty’ or ‘dry’, ‘bare’ and ‘sandy’. · In this case, ‘comfort’ is the key word · ‘Perfectly round’ = unusual but well-crafted · ‘Shiny yellow brass’ = ornate and well-kept · ‘Tiled’, ‘carpeted’ and ‘polished’ = luxurious · Repetition of ‘lots’ emphasise hobbit’s sociable nature
|
- “Kit’s Wilderness” by David Almond
“In Stoneygate there was a wilderness. It was an empty space between the houses and the river, where the ancient pit had been. That’s where we played Askew’s game, the game called Death. We used to gather at the school’s gates after the bell had rung. We stood there whispering and giggling. After five minutes, Bobby Carr told us it was time and he led us through the wilderness to Askew’s den, a deep hole dug into the earth with old doors slung across it as an entrance and a roof. The place was hidden from the school and from the houses of Stoneygate by the slope and by the tall grasses growing around it.
We stumbled one by one down the crumbling steps. We crouched against the walls. The floor was hard-packed clay. Candles burned in niches in the walls. There was a heap of bones in the corner. Askew told us they were human bones, discovered when he’d dug this place. There was a blackened ditch where a fire burned in winter. The den was lined with dried mud. Askew had carved pictures of us all, of the dogs and cats we owned, of the wild dog, Jax, of imagined monsters and demons, of the gates of Heaven and the snapping jaws of Hell. He wrote into the wall the names of all of us who’s died in there”.
Make your notes in your jotter
|
NOTES |