Course 4—Lecture

Title and Setting

Wallflowers—alone and forgotten
Poor titles. Poor settings. They sit out the dance, they miss all the fun, they get no respect. Everyone is so busy analyzing plot, characters, symbols or irony, they overlook titles and settings.

But we ignore them at our peril
Although often taken for granted, titles and setting provide important clues to a story's central ideas.

Titles—tell us things

Attention must be paid* to titles and how they function in a story. Titles perform any of three roles.

* Linda Loman's famous line in defense of her husband, Willy Loman—his deserving of respect—in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Titles—restate a theme

Titles often serve as a shorthand statement of theme, reinforcing a work's central ideas.

Titles—point to a key concept

Titles can be used for emphasis, to draw attention to a key concept in a story.

Titles—highlight irony

Titles can be ironic, meaning the opposite of what is stated or suggested.

Let's talk about setting

Settings, like titles, are easy to overlook. But writers choose them for specific reasons. Settings come in 4 basic colors:

Type of setting—location

Location is where the events of a story take place. A story may have multiple locations.

"A & P" (John Updike), the LitCourse 4 story, is set in a grocery chain store, in a small town in Massachusetts near the coast, not far from the historical town of Salem.

Type of setting—time

Time, in terms of setting, is when the events of the story take place. A story may have multiple time frames.

"A & P" (this course's story) takes place in the 1950's, during the summer when vacationers flock to the shore.

Type of setting—culture

Cultural settings reflect the social milieu in which the characters act out the events of the story. They include:

"A & P" takes place during an era of conformity. The McCarthy hearings and the red scare were in full swing.

Type of setting—physical

Physical setting is the outward environment or physical landmarks surrounding the events of a story.

"Young Goodman Brown," one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous stories, takes place in a dark, thickly wooded forest, mirroring the spiritual turmoil of the protagonist.

Purpose of Setting

Authors might choose their settings in order to establish any of 3 basic elements:

Purpose of setting—mood

Mood—an atmosphere readers almost feel—can be evoked by the author's choice of setting.

Purpose of setting—motivation

Characters and their actions can be influenced by the choice of setting.

Purpose of setting—theme

Themes, or the central ideas of a story, are often reflected in a work's setting.

Congratulations!

You've reached the end of the Lecture. To continue LitCourse 2, click "Reading" on the Course Tools menu to the right.

"Digging" (poem)
Seamus Heaney

"A & P" (short story)
John Updike