This document serves as an introduction to an essay assignment focusing on the comparison and contrast of literary elements, particularly setting, in two or more pieces of literature. It includes examples of how setting influences character and plot through analyses of Zhang Yimou's film 'To Live' and Dudley Randall's poem 'Ballad of Birmingham.' Additional writing prompts and bonus opportunities are offered to explore the historical and social contexts that shape the narratives.

1. a Time and a Placeintroduction to setting

2. This Lecture and Essay #2
In Essay #2,* due in Week 6, compare and contrast
how two pieces use any literary element we have
studied so far. Setting is one element you might use.
We’ll discuss possible pair ups in the Week 6 forum.
*Extended Essay 2 Option: Discuss a 3rd piece (25 pts) and/or a 2nd
element (25 pts). To earn the full 25, cover the 2nd piece or element in
depth. All attempts will earn some extra points.
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 2

3. Our Literary Elements so Far
Plot – What happens and why do we keep
watching/reading?
Characterization – Who does it happen to and why do we
care?
Narration – Who is telling the story? What do we learn
about the characters/time/place through the teller?
Point of View – How much does the narrator know and
see? Whose thoughts do they “hear”? What’s their
attitude?
Setting – Where & when does the story happen? How
does that place & time affect all the above?
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 3

4. Setting with Plot-sized Muscle
Zhang Yimou’s epic film To Live follows a family as they ride the
social and historical rapids of rapid change in modern China.
Mao’s communist revolution and later “Great Leap Forward”
sweep them one way and then another, bringing drama, conflict
and growth. In this sense the time setting acts like plot: It forces
the characters to change, revealing and building character. It
might also keep us, as a suspenseful plot does, on the figurative
edge of our seats. What, we wonder, will hit this poor family next?
Has your own family ever been swept up by historical and social
forces beyond their control? How did they deal? How did that
change them? Tell me about it in an email (10 Bonus Points).
And/or dramatize it in a Creative Blog post. See instructions in the
blog area for this week.
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 4

5. Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 5
As a child, were you ever in a food fight? Ever do something mean to another child? In
this scene from To Live, the father, Fugui, feels he must publicly shame his young son
because he has just dumped a bowl of noodles on the son of a politically powerful
member of the village. “Counter revolutionary!” yells the man – words that in that time
and place could get a person shot. Fugui must act quickly and more harshly than he
wants to. Were your parents every afraid for you or more controlling because of the
society you live in?

6. “Ballad of Birmingham”:
Historical Setting in a Poem
Some pieces can best, or only, be understood in their historical context. In Dudley
Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham, on the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama,
1963,” one family’s tragedy happens within the context The Civil Rights movement. The
bombing affected the movement, changing public opinion in favor of it. And the poem
about the bombing resonates with everything that happened before and after that day.
In the poem, a little girl asks her mother if she can attend a Freedom March. The
mother says no, “For the dogs are fierce and wild / and clubs and hoses, guns and jails,
Aren’t good for a little child.” She sends her instead to church “to sing in the children’s
choir.”
The mother smiled to know her child
Was in a sacred space
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
The poet makes history human. In a sense, we can say his subject is the setting itself.
The full poem is here
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 6
Note: When quoting a few lines of poetry in passing, show line
breaks with a back slash, as in the paragraph above. When
quoting more, esp in an essay, keep the line breaks, showing the
poem as it appears on the page, as here to the left.

7. Bonus Point Opportunity
Analyze how setting and descriptions of it reflect a
character’s inner state in a piece below or another of
your choosing. For an example, see the essay on pages
207-212; what you turn in need not be so long & formal.
Worth 10 points. Longer, more detailed writing (300+
words) could earn up to 20 points. Or might be expanded
into an essay.
Shorter Pieces to consider: Daystar (525), The Shabbat
(21), I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (485), The Sky is Low,
the Clouds are Mean (488), The Story of an Hour (287)
Longer options: A Hunger Artist (336), The Yellow
Wallpaper (316); The Raven (730); Persimmons (534)
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 7

8. Bonus Point Opportunity
Discuss what a piece shows or suggests about a time
period or a society (or a society at a certain time). See
previous slide on points.
Shorter pieces to consider: London (554); Good People
(156); Easter 1916 (746 – may need some research too); I,
Too & Harlem (715-16); Identity (see link in Week 1)
Longer: Sonny’s Blues (66); Trifles (771); A Doll’s House
(812 – a long play, also a movie version); Black Mirror,
West World or other speculative fiction; Persimmons
(534). Any play in the drama section, starting p 768.
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 8

9. Setting Questions to help begin
a Compare-Contrast Essay
• How central is setting to each of these pieces?
• Is there a vague, archetypal setting (p 186)? That is, would the piece be the same
where or whenever it took place? Or is the setting vivid and specific?
• Did you like one piece more? Did setting have anything to do with your
reactions?
• As you read/watched/listened, did certain descriptions of the place and time
stand out for you? (Note those for possible use in the essay.)
• Did you feel the mood of either piece’s time and place? How did the author(s) do
that?
• Where and how do historical events and social movements affect the plot and
characters? If they don’t affect them, why is that?
• How do point-of-view and setting work together (or not) in each piece?
• Does setting ever act like plot, in terms of raising obstacles and causing conflicts
that make characters grow and change?
• What did you learn about each piece’s place and time? What questions are you
left with?
Introduction to Setting. ENGL 151L 9