Setting
Writers of fiction and drama stage the action of their stories by establishing setting—the place, the time, and the atmosphere in which dramatic situations occur.
- The place confines the action to a specific location or geographical area. For example, a supermarket and a roadside diner are some of the places described in short stories and novels.
- The time frames the action of the story by explaining when the events happened—the time of day, the season, or the historical period. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is set in the 1920s.
- The atmosphere conveys the emotions associated with the story’s physical environment. Descriptions of specific places often create the atmosphere. For instance, a candlelit restaurant may evoke romantic feelings.
An author can establish setting in two ways. Sometimes authors directly state the place, the time, and the atmosphere. Other times you need to infer these things from descriptive details. In passages of drama, you can often determine the setting from the stage directions at the beginning of the play.
Example
The following paragraph is an example of a direct statement of place.
We went to the only nightclub on a short, dark street, downtown. The village of Loma is built, as its name implies, on a low round hill that rises like an island out of the flat mouth of the Salinas Valley in central California.
From “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
Did you notice that Baldwin clearly states where the story is taking place? The place is a nightclub in Loma, California.
See pages 166–172, 256, and 257 in Contemporary's GED Language Arts, Reading for more information on setting.