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made them strong in spirit and fortunate in wives. He himself had three horses and no contrasting descriptions of the settings of each elementary school as an expression of 1
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war. wives. His animals were puny, not a blackhorn both mother and daughter’s desire for stability and belonging.
Not so lucky was White Man’s Dog. He had runner among them. He owned a musket and no chapter 1
little to show for his eighteen winters. His father, powder and his animal helper was weak. KEY QUESTIONS
Rides-at-the-door, had many horses and three 1986
Analyzing Setting
• What is the geographical setting? Urban or rural? The United States or a foreign Section 1 / Elements of Fiction
Setting country? What is the weather like?
• When does the story take place? How are these details important to the story?
On a literal level, setting indicates the time and place, or the when and where, of a • How does the author use details to convey the story’s setting? How do these details
Analyzing Short Fiction
literary text. This physical sense of time and place also contributes to the tone, mood, create atmosphere or mood?
and meaning of a literary work. Writer Eudora Welty described setting as “the named, • In what ways does a story’s setting reveal important information about its characters?
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
identified, concrete, exact and exacting, and therefore credible, gathering spot of all
that has been felt, is about to be experienced.” Writer and retired musician Marcia
Butler likened setting to the “bedrock” or “harmony” of a narrative, on top of which TRM Suggested Responses
“characters or soloists of the story will be maneuvered.” Writer Alice McDermott Analyzing Setting activity Suggested responses to the activity on
explained the relationship between setting and meaning in literature very succinctly: Authors often use setting as another means of developing a character. Khaled this page can be found in the Teacher’s
“setting illuminates character, not the other way around.” All of these explanations of Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner features Amir, a young man from Kabul, Afghanistan, Resource Materials.
setting are valid. as its protagonist. In the following passage, Amir describes traveling to Peshawar, a city
Setting also includes such objective facts as the community and nation, date and in Pakistan, after having visited it as a child. Read the passage carefully. How does
time, and weather and season in which the story occurs. If events occur on a dark and Hosseini use details of the setting to convey the experience Amir has returning to a TRM Annotation Handout
stormy night, we can reasonably expect a dark and stormy tale. If the action opens on a place he knew in his youth? A student handout for annotating this text
spring morning in a sunlit meadow, it is likely the author is preparing us for a lighter tale. can be found in the Teacher’s Resource
The author may also contrast the character’s emotions and the setting or even establish from The Kite Runner Materials.
a contrast between different settings in the story. In order to understand how setting
relates to the short story as a whole, you will have to consider the significance of Khaled Hosseini
elements that might at first seem merely physical and objective. For example, a story I remembered Peshawar pretty well from the few embroidered shawls, and copper goods from DIFFERENTIATION
that takes place as winter transitions into spring could signify new beginnings. The most months Baba and I had spent there in 1981. We rows of small, tightly jammed stalls. The city was
important thing is that you pay attention to the details— the sights and sounds, textures were heading west now on Jamrud road, past the bursting with sounds; the shouts of vendors rang Mode of Expression
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and tones, colors and shapes— because they will convey more about the setting than Cantonment and its lavish, high-walled homes. in my ears mingled with the blare of Hindi You may wish to have students identify and
just when and where the story takes place. The bustle of the city blurring past me reminded music, the sputtering of rickshaws, and the mark setting descriptions and details in
The setting of “The First Day” is a poor neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and me of a busier, more crowded version of the jingling bells of horse-drawn carts. Rich scents, the piece in small groups. Then, ask them
we’re given details about the school the mother wants her daughter to attend— the Kabul I knew, particularly of the Kocheh-Morgha, both pleasant and not so pleasant, drifted to me to sketch a map of the setting based on
school that is directly across from her church. Why is the proximity of the church or Chicken Bazaar, where Hassan and I used to through the passenger window, the spicy aroma given textual details. Finally, have students
important to the setting? What do these details reveal about the mother and her buy chutney-dipped potatoes and cherry water. of pakora and the nihari Baba had loved so make inferences about and describe the
values? The narrator tells us that the church is very important to her mother— it is her The streets were clogged with bicycle riders, much blended with the sting of diesel fumes, the culture of the setting. Students may wish
“rock” — so it’s clear the mother wants the daughter to go to the nearby school because milling pedestrians, and rickshaws popping blue stench of rot, garbage, and feces. to select a spokesperson from the group to
it is familiar and in a community she trusts. The physical details of both schools in the smoke, all weaving through a maze of narrow A little past the redbrick buildings of share out. As a whole class, students could
discuss various inferences based on the
story contribute somewhat to the setting, too, because while Seaton Elementary is lanes and alleys. Bearded vendors draped in thin Peshawar University, we entered an area my same textual details.
older and worn down, the newer looking exterior of Walker-Jones Elementary appeals blankets sold animal-skin lampshades, carpets, garrulous driver referred to as “Afghan Town.”
to the daughter. What, then, does the daughter’s perception of the schools convey I saw sweetshops and carpet vendors, kabob
1 Military quarters. — Eds. stalls, kids with dirt-caked hands selling
about the communities and their inhabitants’ circumstances? We might read these
(continued)
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chapter 1 / Elements of Fiction 9

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