I.What is Setting
Both depiction of character and unfolding of plot and theme occur
in time and place.
Understanding a story depends on awareness of setting.
Setting may influence character, conflict, and theme.
Example story:
The summer Hattie turns 12, her predictable smalltown life is turned on end when her uncle Adam
returns home for the first time in over ten years. Hattie has never met him, never known about him.
He's been institutionalized; his condition invovles schizophrenia and autism.
Hattie, a shy girl who prefers the company of adults, takes immediately to her excitable uncle, even
when the rest of the family -- her parents and grandparents -- have trouble dealing with his intense
way of seeing the world. And Adam, too, sees that Hattie is special, that her quiet, shy ways are not
a disability.
in time and place.
a disability.
1. Integral setting (The essential)
A story has an integral setting when action, character, or theme are influenced by the time and place.
Example story:
Set in the Midwestern United States during the late 19th century, Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife during childbirth several years earlier, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. He writes an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah Wheaton, from Maine, answers his ad and travels out to become his wife.
While Anna is initially apprehensive about Sarah as she still has memories of her late mother, Caleb is excited and deeply hopes that Sarah will stay. When Sarah arrives conditionally for one month, Anna notices that she is lonely and misses the sea. Stubborn and persistent, she gradually wins over Jacob with her insistence on learning and helping out with farm tasks. The Wittings become attached to her, though Caleb constantly worries that their home is not enough for her and that she misses the sea. When she goes to town by wagon on her own, Anna tries to reassure Caleb that Sarah will return, though she secretly fears that Sarah will not. They are overjoyed when she returns by
nightfall. She admits that while she misses the sea, she would
miss them more if she left them. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah married soon afterward.
While Anna is initially apprehensive about Sarah as she still has memories of her late mother, Caleb is excited and deeply hopes that Sarah will stay. When Sarah arrives conditionally for one month, Anna notices that she is lonely and misses the sea. Stubborn and persistent, she gradually wins over Jacob with her insistence on learning and helping out with farm tasks. The Wittings become attached to her, though Caleb constantly worries that their home is not enough for her and that she misses the sea. When she goes to town by wagon on her own, Anna tries to reassure Caleb that Sarah will return, though she secretly fears that Sarah will not. They are overjoyed when she returns by
nightfall. She admits that while she misses the sea, she would
miss them more if she left them. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah married soon afterward.
nightfall. She admits that while she misses the sea, she would
miss them more if she left them. Anna reveals that Jacob and Sarah married soon afterward.
When Joel is told by his father not to go anywhere beyond the bike path he and his friend are supposed to be riding on, Joel promises, "On my honor." Joel and Tony are best friends despite their different characteristics. Tony, who is adventurous, challenges Joel, who is more responsible and cautious, to climb a large and dangerous cliff called Starved Rock. Joel does not want anyone to get hurt, yet he also does not want to seem like a coward in front of Tony. Joel suggests a swimming race in a forbidden treacherous river, despite the fact that Tony is not a good swimmer. Joel ends up winning the race, but when he turns to look back at Tony, he finds that he has died in a whirlpool in between the land and the sandbar. Tony has drowned in the river they were told never to swim in. Joel tries to find Tony in the river, but gets sucked into a current himself. However, he grabs a log, and manages to pull himself to safety. Joel lives with the horrible secret until Tony and Joel's family find out. Joel decides to confess what has happened. Joel's father also feels blame in Tony's death. He tries to comfort
Joel to sleep once the cops leave.
Joel to sleep once the cops leave.
2. Backdrop setting (The relatively unimportant)
Backdrop settings have symbolic meaning.
In backdrop settings, time and place do not necessarily influence action or character.
In Winnie-the Pooh, setting is generalized and universal.
Example story:
Winnie-the-Pooh
| Winnie-the-Pooh | |
|---|---|
Pooh in an illustration by E. H. Shepard
| |
| First appearance | When We Were Very Young (1924) (As Edward Bear) Winnie-the-Pooh (As Winnie-the-Pooh) |
| Created by | A. A. Milne |
| Information | |
| Species | Teddy bear |
| Gender | Male |
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children's verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.
The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the only Latin book ever to have been featured on The New York Times Best Seller list.[1]
Hyphens in the character's name were dropped by Disney when the company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of features that became one of its most successful franchises. In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway, Hal Smith, and Jim Cummings in English and Yevgeny Leonov in Russian.
History
Origin
A. A. Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh for a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. The rest of Christopher Robin Milne's toys, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger, were incorporated into Milne's stories.[2][3] Two more characters, Owl and Rabbit, were created by Milne's imagination, while Gopher was added to the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City.[4]
Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, Canada, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnie" after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "Winnie" was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there.[5] Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.
In the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh":
Ashdown Forest: the setting for the stories
The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, England. The forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles (50 km) south of London. In 1925 Milne, a Londoner, bought a country home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield. According to Christopher Milne, while his father continued to live in London "...the four of us—he, his wife, his son and his son's nanny—would pile into a large blue, chauffeur-driven Fiat and travel down every Saturday morning and back again every Monday afternoon. And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring and two months in the summer."[6] From the front lawn the family had a view across a meadow to a line of alders that fringed the River Medway, beyond which the ground rose through more trees until finally "above them, in the faraway distance, crowning the view, was a bare hilltop. In the centre of this hilltop was a clump of pines." Most of his father's visits to the forest at this time were, he noted, family expeditions on foot "to make yet another attempt to count the pine trees on Gill's Lap or to search for the marsh gentian". Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made it "the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival".[7]
Many locations in the stories can be linked to real places in and around the forest. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography: "Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical". For example, the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood" was in reality Five Hundred Acre Wood; Galleon's Leap was inspired by the prominent hilltop of Gill's Lap, while a clump of trees just north of Gill's Lap became Christopher Robin's The Enchanted Place because no-one had ever been able to count whether there were sixty-three or sixty-four trees in the circle.[8]
The landscapes depicted in E. H. Shepard's illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh books were directly inspired by the distinctive landscape of Ashdown Forest, with its high, open heathlands of heather, gorse, bracken and silver birch punctuated by hilltop clumps of pine trees. Many of Shepard's illustrations can be matched to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence. Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other forest scenes are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[9]
The game of Poohsticks was originally played by Christopher Milne on a footbridge across a tributary of the River Medway in Posingford Wood, close to Cotchford Farm. The wooden bridge is now a tourist attraction, and it has become traditional to play the game there using sticks gathered in nearby woodland.[10][11] When the footbridge recently had to be replaced, the engineer designed a new structure based closely on the drawings of the bridge by Shepard in the books, which were somewhat different than the original structure.
First publication
Christopher Robin's teddy bear, Edward, made his character début in A. A. Milne's poem, "Teddy Bear", in the 13 February 1924 edition of Punch, and the same poem was published in Milne's book of children's verse When We Were Very Young (6 November 1924).[12] Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name on 24 December 1925, in a Christmas story commissioned and published by the London newspaper The Evening News. It was illustrated by J. H. Dowd.[13]
The first collection of Pooh stories appeared in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. The Evening News Christmas story reappeared as the first chapter of the book. At the beginning, it explained that Pooh was in fact Christopher Robin's Edward Bear, who had been renamed by the boy. He was renamed after a black bear at London Zoo called Winnie who got her name from the fact that her owner had come from Winnipeg, Canada. The book was published in October 1926 by the publisher of Milne's earlier children's work, Methuen, in England, and E. P. Dutton in the United States.[14]
Character
In the Milne books, Pooh is naive and slow-witted, but he is also friendly, thoughtful, and steadfast. Although he and his friends agree that he "has no Brain", Pooh is occasionally acknowledged to have a clever idea, usually driven by common sense. These include riding in Christopher Robin's umbrella to rescue Piglet from a flood, discovering "the North Pole" by picking it up to help fish Roo out of the river, inventing the game of Poohsticks, and getting Eeyore out of the river by dropping a large rock on one side of him to wash him towards the bank.
Pooh is also a talented poet, and the stories are frequently punctuated by his poems and "hums." Although he is humble about his slow-wittedness, he is comfortable with his creative gifts. When Owl's house blows down in a storm, trapping Pooh and Piglet and Owl inside, Pooh encourages Piglet (the only one small enough to do so) to escape and rescue them all by promising that "a respectful Pooh song" will be written about Piglet's feat. Later, Pooh muses about the creative process as he composes the song.
Pooh is very fond of food, especially "hunny" but also condensed milk and other items. When he visits friends, his desire to be offered a snack is in conflict with the impoliteness of asking too directly. Though intending to give Eeyore a pot of honey for his birthday, Pooh cannot resist eating the honey on his way to deliver the present, and so instead gives Eeyore "a useful pot to put things in". When he and Piglet are lost in the forest during Rabbit's attempt to "unbounce" Tigger, Pooh finds his way home by following the "call" of the honeypots from his house. Pooh makes it a habit to have "a little something" around eleven o'clock in the morning. As the clock in his house "stopped at five minutes to eleven some weeks ago," any time can be Pooh's snack time.
Pooh is very social. After Christopher Robin, his closest friend is Piglet, and he most often chooses to spend his time with one or both of them. But he also habitually visits the other animals, often looking for a snack or an audience for his poetry as much as for companionship. His kind-heartedness means he goes out of his way to be friendly to Eeyore, visiting him and bringing him a birthday present and building him a house, despite receiving mostly disdain from Eeyore in return.
3. Setting in Charlotte’s Web
The fair is an essential part of the story.
It is necessary that the reader see, hear, smell , and even touch and taste it.
The time element is important.
The passing of a full year makes clear both outcome and theme.
Charlotte's Web
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. In 2000, Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time.[1]Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Charlotte's Web was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973. Paramount released a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, in the U.S. in 2003 (Universal released the film internationally). A live-action film version of E. B. White's original story was released in 2006. A video game based on this adaption was also released in 2006.
Plot summary
After her father spares the life of a piglet from slaughtering it as runt of the litter, a little girl named Fern Arable nurtures the piglet lovingly, naming him Wilbur. On greater maturity, Wilbur is sold to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman, in whose barnyard he is left yearning for companionship but is snubbed by other barn animals, until befriended by a barn spider named Charlotte, living on a web overlooking Wilbur's enclosure. Upon Wilbur's discovery that he is intended for slaughter, she promises to hatch a plan guaranteed to spare his life. Accordingly, she secretly weaves praise of him into her web, attracting publicity among Zuckerman's neighbors who attribute the praise to divine intervention. As time passes, more inscriptions appear on Charlotte's webs, increasing his renown. Therefore, Wilbur is entered in the county fair, accompanied by Charlotte and the rat Templeton, whom she employs in gathering inspiration for her messages. There, Charlotte spins an egg sac containing her unborn offspring, and Wilbur, despite winning no prizes, is later celebrated by the fair's staff and visitors (thus made too prestigious alive to justify killing him). Exhausted apparently by laying eggs, Charlotte remains at the fair and dies shortly after Wilbur's departure. Having returned to Zuckerman's farm, Wilbur guards Charlotte's egg sac and is saddened further when the new spiders depart shortly after hatching. The three smallest remain, however. Pleased at finding new friends, Wilbur names the spiderlings Joy, Nellie, and Aranea, and the book concludes by mentioning that more generations of spiders kept him company in subsequent years.
Characters
- Wilbur is a rambunctious pig, the runt of his litter. He is often strongly emotional.
- Charlotte A. Cavatica, or simply Charlotte, is a spider who befriends Wilbur. In some passages, she is the heroine of the story.[2]
- John Arable: Wilbur's first owner.
- Fern Arable, John's daughter, who adopts Wilbur in his infancy, and later visits him. She is the only human in the story capable of understanding nonhuman conversation.
- Templeton is a rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur only when offered food. He serves as a somewhat caustic, self-serving comic relief to the plot.
- Avery Arable is the elder brother of Fern. Like Templeton, he is a source of comic relief.
- Homer Zuckerman is Fern’s uncle who keeps Wilbur in his barn. He has a wife, Edith, and an assistant named Lurvy.
- Other animals in Zuckerman’s barn, with whom Wilbur converses, are a disdainful lamb, a talkative goose, and an intelligent "old sheep".
- Henry Fussy is a boy of Fern’s age, of whom Fern becomes fond of.
- Dr. Dorian is the family physician/psychologist consulted by Fern's mother and something of a wise old man character.
- Uncle is a large pig whom Charlotte disdains for coarse manners and Wilbur’s rival at the fair.
Readers of all ages will be gradually influenced by various cultural experiences-people and places beyond those immediate ones.
Settings also have a human element; stories have events that influence the characters.
The setting, and all it entails, provides the guidelines and sets the parameters for what can logically occur in a good story.
1. —Setting That Clarifies Conflict
A setting plays an important part in conflict.
Setting for a story can be any time, past, present, or future.
Example story:
It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine. No one in town
will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie
Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves.
Despite his father's-and the town's-disapproval of their friendship, Turner spends time with Lizzie,
and it opens up a whole new world to him, filled with the mystery and wonder of Maine's rocky coast.
The two soon discover that the town elders, along with Turner's father, want to force the people to
leave Lizzie's island so that Phippsburg can start a lucrative tourist trade there. Turner gets caught
up in a spiral of disasters that alter his life-but also lead him to new levels of acceptance and maturity.
This sensitively written historical novel, based on the true story of a community's destruction,
highlights a unique friendship during a time of change. Author's note.
In the summer of 1899, Calpurnia Virginia Tate is about to turn twelve and worries about the adult responsibilities that loom on the horizon. She would much rather swim in the river near her family's pecan plantation just outside the tiny town of Fentress, Texas than learn to cook, knit, and play the piano. One day, noticing two different types of grasshoppers in the lawn around the house, Callie decides to find a copy of Charles Darwin's infamous book The Origin of Species. After a disastrous encounter with a lady librarian, Callie is forced to search for the illicit book elsewhere. Little does she know that there is a copy in her very own house in the personal library of her Granddaddy. An imposing and distant figure, Callie must work up her courage to ask him about her grasshopper conundrum and relay her own theory about why the grasshoppers around the house are two different sizes. Thus begins an easy sort of friendship between granddaughter and grandfather. Soon Callie is spending most of her time with Granddaddy, catching specimens of wildlife for his collection and learning about natural sciences at his side.
When she is not tramping and trapping with Granddaddy, Callie finds herself sadly incapable at the skills her mother so desperately tries to teach her. She cannot cook anything other than soft-boiled eggs and cheese sandwiches. Her needlepoint is "straggly and pitiful." Her piano-playing, while adequate, is unexceptional. All of this is painfully obvious to poor Callie when she is compared to her best friend Lula. Lula is a perfect lady, excelling at all of the pursuits at which Callie fails so miserably. In fact, her proper ladylike demeanor has three of Callie's six brothers falling in love with her during the course of the summer.
Callie fears that her free-roaming days may be at an end, though, when she receives a frightening Christmas gift: a book from her mother entitled "The Science of Housewifery."
Throughout the novel, Callie must learn to balance her own independent and curious personality with the restrictions placed on a girl at the turn of the 19th century. As new inventions are presented in Callie's life, she adjusts and evolves, first with the wind machine her brother brings home, then with a marvelous new beverage called Coca-Cola. Ultimately, though, it is the introduction of the telephone in the small Texas town that symbolizes the changes ahead for Callie. As Granddaddy tells her, "The old century is dying, even as we watch. Remember this day." As the book ends, the 20th century dawns, leaving the reader hopeful that it will bring with it new opportunities for the feisty young Calpurnia.
Illustrated in full color. Just in time for the presidential election comes Caldecott medalist Emily Arnold McCully's stirring tale of a young girl's act of bravery inspired by the great Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is the fall of 1880, and Cordelia is more interested in horse riding than in hearing her neighbor, Mrs. Stanton talk about her fight for women's suffrage. But on Election Day, Mrs. Stanton tells the heart-wrenching story of her childhood. Charged with the story's message, Cordelia determines to go with Mrs. Stanton to the polls in an attempt to vote--above the jeers and taunts of the male crowd. With faces, landscapes, and action scenes brought to life by McCully's virtuosic illustrations, Cordelia's turning-point experience is sure to inspire today's young girls (and boys) everywhere. 2. Setting as Historical Background
can better understand life in
another time.
Setting in historical fiction is very important.
Example story:
Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti
Rose Blanche was the name of a group of young German citizens who, at their peril, protested against the war. Like them, Rose observes all the changes going on around her which others choose to ignore. She watches as the streets of her small German town fill with soldiers. One day she sees a little boy escaping from the back of a truck, only to be captured by the mayor and shoved back into it. Rose follows the truck to a desolate place out of town, where she discovers many other children, staring hungrily from behind an electric barbed wire fence. She starts bringing the children food, instinctively sensing the need for secrecy, even with her mother. Until the tide of the war turns and soldiers in different uniforms stream in from the East, and Rose and the imprisoned children disappear for ever . . .
As a girl, Alice loved to dance, but the rhythms of her life offered little opportunity for a foxtrot, let
alone a waltz. World War II erupted soon after she was married. Alice and her husband, along with
many other Japanese Americans, were forced to leave their homes and report to assembly centers
around the country. Undaunted, Alice and her husband learned to make the most of every
circumstance, from their stall in the old stockyard in Portland to the decrepit farm in the Oregon
desert, with its field of stones. Like a pair of skilled dancers, they sidestepped adversity to land
gracefully amid golden opportunity. Together they turned a barren wasteland into a field of endless
flowers. Such achievements did not come without effort and sacrifice, though, and Alice often thought
her dancing days were long behind her. But as her story testifies, life is full of changes . . .
In this striking book, Allen Say introduces readers to the remarkable story of the life of a woman
whose perseverance and resilience serve as an inspirational reminder that dreams can be fulfilled,
even when least expected.
3. Setting as Antagonist
Sometimes setting itself is antagonist.
Setting is antagonistic, but it is also integral to the resolution – it is
both foe and ally.
both foe and ally.
Setting can heighten suspense.
The antagonist is ”progress,” and ‘progress’ creates the refuge.
Example story:
Stunning and unique mixed media collages will amaze readers in this powerful, eco-conscious picture
book by the internationally renowned Jeannie Baker. In this visually compelling look at our changing
environment by Jeannie Baker, illustrator of the critically-acclaimed Mirror and Where the Forest
Meets the Sea, a mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as
the eye can see. With each page, the boy grows and the scene changes. At first, in a clear patch of
forest, a single house appears. A few years pass and there is a village in the distance...When the boy
is twenty, will he recognize the view from his window? Illustrated with elaborate and gorgeous collage
constructions, Window is a wordless picture book that speaks volumes.
"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and
she was strong and well built." So begins Virginia Lee Burton's classic The Little House, winner of the
prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1942. The rosy-pink Little House, on a hill surrounded by apple trees,
watches the days go by, from the first apple blossoms in the spring through the winter snows. Always
faintly aware of the city's distant lights, she starts to notice the city encroaching on her bucolic
existence. First a road appears, which brings horseless carriages and then trucks and steamrollers.
Before long, more roads, bigger homes, apartment buildings, stores, and garages surround the Little
House. Her family moves out and she finds herself alone in the middle of the city, where the artificial
lights are so bright that the Little House can no longer see the sun or the moon. She often dreams of
"the field of daisies and the apple trees dancing in the moonlight." Finally a woman recognizes her
and whisks the Little House back to the country where she belongs, they will rejoice. For generations,
young readers have been delighted by the whimsical, detailed drawings and happy ending.
—
4. Setting That Illuminates Character
Setting influences character.
The setting becomes overwhelming in its effect on every aspect of
the characters’ lives.
the characters’ lives.
Example story:
"I was born at the beginning of it all, on the Red side―the Communist side―of the Iron Curtain."
Through annotated illustrations, journals, maps, and dreamscapes, Peter Sís shows what life was like
for a child who loved to draw, proudly wore the red scarf of a Young Pioneer, stood guard at the giant
statue of Stalin, and believed whatever he was told to believe. But adolescence brought questions.
Cracks began to appear in the Iron Curtain, and news from the West slowly filtered into the country.
Sís learned about beat poetry, rock 'n' roll, blue jeans, and Coca-Cola. He let his hair grow long,
secretly read banned books, and joined a rock band. Then came the Prague Spring of 1968, and for
a teenager who wanted to see the world and meet the Beatles, this was a magical time. It was short-
lived, however, brought to a sudden and brutal end by the Soviet-led invasion. But this brief flowering
had provided a glimpse of new possibilities―creativity could be discouraged but not easily killed.
By joining memory and history, Sís takes us on his extraordinary journey: from infant with paintbrush
in hand to young man borne aloft by the wings of his art. This title has Common Core connections.
A Life in Hiding
When the German army occupied Holland, Annie de Leeuw was eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger-she knew that to stay alive she would have to hide. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. For two years they hid Annie and her sister, Sini, in the cramped upstairs room of their farmhouse.
Most people thought the war wouldn't last long. But for Annie and Sini -- separated from their family and confined to one tiny room -- the war seemed to go on forever.
In the part of the marketplace where flowers had been sold twice a week-tulips in the spring, roses in the summer-stood German tanks and German soldiers. Annie de Leeuw was eight years old in 1940 when the Germans attacked Holland and marched into the town of Winterswijk where she lived. Annie was ten when, because she was Jewish and in great danger of being cap-tured by the invaders, she and her sister Sini had to leave their father, mother, and older sister Rachel to go into hiding in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse.
Johanna de Leeuw Reiss has written a remarkably fresh and moving account of her own experiences as a young girl during World War II. Like many adults she was innocent of the German plans for Jews, and she might have gone to a labor camp as scores of families did. "It won't be for long and the Germans have told us we'll be treated well," those families said. "What can happen?" They did not know, and they could not imagine.... But millions of Jews found out.
Mrs. Reiss's picture of the Oosterveld family with whom she lived, and of Annie and Sini, reflects a deep spirit of optimism, a faith in the ingenuity, backbone, and even humor with which ordinary human beings meet extraordinary challenges. In the steady, matter-of-fact, day-by-day courage they all showed lies a profound strength that transcends the horrors of the long and frightening war. Here is a memorable book, one that will be read and reread for years to come.
—5. Setting That Creates Mood
Setting affect mood.
Setting can be sentimentalized.
—Crow Call by Here Lowry
Two-time Newbery medalist Lois Lowry has crafted a beautiful picture book about the power of
longing and the importance of reconnection between a girl and her father in post-WWII America.
This is the story of young Liz, her father, and their strained relationship. Dad has been away at WWII
for longer than she can remember, and they begin their journey of reconnection through a hunting
shirt, cherry pie, tender conversation, and the crow call. This allegorical story shows how, like the
birds gathering above, the relationship between the girl and her father is graced with the chance to fly.
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
"Of all the forms of water the tiny six-pointed crystals of ice called snow are incomparably the most
beautiful and varied." -- Wilson Bentley (1865-1931)
From the time he was a small boy in Vermont, Wilson Bentley saw snowflakes as small miracles. And
he determined that one day his camera would capture for others the wonder of the tiny crystal.
Bentley's enthusiasm for photographing snowflakes was often misunderstood in his time, but his
patience and determination revealed two important truths: no two snowflakes are alike; and each
one is startlingly beautiful. His story is gracefully told and brought to life in lovely woodcuts, giving
children insight into a soul who had not only a scientist's vision and perseverance but a clear passion
for the wonders of nature. Snowflake Bentley won the 1999 Caldecott Medal.
Wilson Bentley
Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley (February 7, 1865 – December 23, 1931) is one of the first known photographers of snowflakes.[1] He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet in such a way that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated.
Kenneth G. Libbrecht notes that the techniques used by Bentley to photograph snowflakes are essentially the same as used today, and that whilst the quality of his photographs reflect the technical limitations of the equipment of the era "he did it so well that hardly anybody bothered to photograph snowflakes for almost 100 years".[2] The broadest collection of Bentley's photographs is held by the Jericho Historical Society in his home town, Jericho, Vermont.
Bentley donated his collection of original glass-plate photomicrographs of snow crystals to the Buffalo Museum of Science. A portion of this collection has been digitized and organized into a digital library.
Biography[edit]
Bentley was born on February 7, 1865, in Jericho, Vermont. He first became interested in snow crystals as a teenager on his family farm. He tried to draw what he saw through an old microscope given to him by his mother when he was fifteen.[3] The snowflakes were too complex to record before they melted, so he attached a bellows camera to a compound microscope and, after much experimentation, photographed his first snowflake on January 15, 1885.[4]
He would capture more than 5,000 images of crystals in his lifetime. Each crystal was caught on a blackboard and transferred rapidly to a microscope slide. Even at subzero temperatures, snowflakes are ephemeral because they sublime.[5]
Bentley poetically described snowflakes as "tiny miracles of beauty" and snow crystals as "ice flowers." Despite these poetic descriptions, Bentley brought a highly objective eye to his work, similar to the German photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932), who photographed seeds, seed pods, and foliage.
In collaboration with George Henry Perkins, professor of natural history at the University of Vermont, Bentley published an article in which he argued that no two snowflakes were alike. This concept caught the public imagination and he published other articles in magazines, including National Geographic, Nature, Popular Science, and Scientific American. His photographs have been requested by academic institutions worldwide.[5]
In 1931 Bentley worked with William J. Humphreys of the U.S. Weather Bureau to publish Snow Crystals, a monographillustrated with 2,500 photographs. His other publications include the entry on "snow" in the fourteenth Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.[6]
Bentley also photographed all forms of ice and natural water formations including clouds and fog. He was the first American to record raindrop sizes and was one of the first cloud physicists.
He died of pneumonia at his farm on December 23, 1931,[5] after walking home six miles in a blizzard.[7] Bentley was memorialized in the naming of a science center in his memory at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. Shortly before his death, his book Snow Crystals was published by McGraw/Hill and is still in print today. Bentley's lifelong home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
6. Setting as Symbol
A symbol is a person, object, situation, or action that operates on two levels of meanings: the literal
and the figurative or suggestive.
Symbols may be combined to create allegory.
A true symbol emphasized, repeated, and supported.
Example story:
A shortcut through the forest to Grandma's house produces some eerie moments — and some oddly familiar characters — in a strikingly illustrated tale about facing fears.
One morning a young boy wakes up to find that Dad is gone. And in this affecting tale from acclaimed picture book artist Anthony Browne, nothing seems quite right after that. When Mom sends the boy to deliver a cake to Grandma, he decides to cut through the forest, a route he's been warned not to take. Soon he's off on a strange, dreamlike journey full of fairy-tale allusions — a personification of a child's anxiety as reflected in the surreal illustrations of Anthony Browne. It's a haunting place where nothing is quite what it seems, until the boy — and the reader — are deeply relieved to arrive at a warm, welcoming homecoming.
One morning a young boy wakes up to find that Dad is gone. And in this affecting tale from acclaimed picture book artist Anthony Browne, nothing seems quite right after that. When Mom sends the boy to deliver a cake to Grandma, he decides to cut through the forest, a route he's been warned not to take. Soon he's off on a strange, dreamlike journey full of fairy-tale allusions — a personification of a child's anxiety as reflected in the surreal illustrations of Anthony Browne. It's a haunting place where nothing is quite what it seems, until the boy — and the reader — are deeply relieved to arrive at a warm, welcoming homecoming.
In most folktales, action and theme are the focus of interest and the setting is
backdrop.
In fables, setting exists a backdrop for the stated moral.
Folktale setting are often vague.
Folktale settings often follow the “once upon a time” formula.
Legends place setting is a historical time.
E Example story:
—Texas Aesop’s Fables by David Davis
In
thirty-three parables, master storyteller David Davis retells age-old lessons
about life, fairness, and honesty with a Texas twist. From classic stories,
such as “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs,” to new western legends, like
“The Cowpoke Who Fooled His Friends,” this collection teaches children the
importance of telling the truth and treating everyone with respect.
Every
short story ends with a summary of the moral learned, and colorful
illustrations make each tale an adventure for all readers. From the beautiful
prairie godmother who grants wishes in the Guadalupe River to the sneaky coyote
who tricks all the animals he encounters, every character adds Texas magic and
humor to these timeless fables.
The Lion and the Mouse - Aesop's Fables Series
The Lion and the Mouse
A small mouse crept up to a sleeping lion. The mouse admired the lion's ears, his long whiskers and his great mane.
"Since he's sleeping," thought the mouse, "he'll never suspect I'm here!"
With that, the little mouse climbed up onto the lion's tail, ran across its back, slid down its leg and jumped off of its paw. The lion awoke and quickly caught the mouse between its claws.
"Please," said the mouse, "let me go and I'll come back and help you someday."
The lion laughed, "You are so small! How could ever help me?"
The lion laughed so hard he had to hold his belly! The mouse jumped to freedom and ran until she was far, far away.
The next day, two hunters came to the jungle. They went to the lion's lair. They set a huge rope snare. When the lion came home that night, he stepped into the trap.
He roared! He wept! But he couldn't pull himself free.
The mouse heard the lion's pitiful roar and came back to help him.
The mouse eyed the trap and noticed the one thick rope that held it together. She began nibbling and nibbling until the rope broke. The lion was able to shake off the other ropes that held him tight. He stood up free again!
The lion turned to the mouse and said, "Dear friend, I was foolish to ridicule you for being small. You helped me by saving my life after all!"
５.Setting in Fantasy
Fantasy often begins in a setting of reality and moves to a fantasy
realm, then back again.
In fantasy, time may take any form.
Setting may move between reality and fantasy.
Example story:
—The Tunnel by Anthony Browne
Anthony Browne is at his most brilliant in a new edition of this profound picture book about sibling
relations. Once upon a time there lived a brother and sister who were complete opposites and
constantly fought and argued. One day they discovered the tunnel. The boy goes through it at once,
dismissing his sister's fears. When he doesn't return his sister has to pluck up the courage to go
through the tunnel too. She finds her brother in a mysterious forest where he has been turned to
stone...
—Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
This
story of only 338 words focuses on a young boy named Max who, after dressing in
his wolf
costume, wreaks such havoc through his household that he is sent to
bed without his supper. Max's
bedroom undergoes a mysterious transformation
into a jungle environment, and he winds up sailing
to an island inhabited by
malicious beasts known as the "Wild Things." After successfully
intimidating the creatures, Max is hailed as the king of the Wild Things
and enjoys a playful romp
with his subjects.
However,
he starts to feel lonely and decides to return home, to the Wild Things'
dismay.
Upon
returning to his bedroom, Max discovers a hot supper waiting for him.
Summary
Setting is of two principal types.
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