Literature

Introduction

In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. Along with plot, character, theme, and style, setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction. A setting is the time place and social environment a story takes place. Setting may take a key role in plot, as in man vs. nature or man vs. society stories. In some stories the setting becomes a character itself. In such roles setting may be considered a plot device or literary device. This paper discusses the role of setting in the two stories I read- A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara in a concise and comprehensive way.

Role of Setting in A Rose for Emily and The Lesson

In "A Rose for Emily", a woman (for whom the story is named) confines herself in her somewhat large house in a small town during the early half of the twentieth century. For the most part, in order to understand the entirety of the story, it is vital to understand the setting and how each character develops it, and,or, interacts with it.

Hagopian and Martin (pp. 43-50) mention as far as the town is concerned, it is very isolated and the people seem to value this quality, as well as the lack of progression in social change, most. There is also a great deal of gossip that regularly circulates about the town's people with great interest. All this was best implied in the comment, "At first we were glad that Miss ...