English 9 / Unit 1: Reading Fiction: Plot, Setting and Conflict
1.2 Setting and Mood
Notes
Setting is where and when a story takes place: place, time period, time of day, season, weather and social environment.
- Setting can shape mood, the feeling the reader gets (eerie, cheerful, tense).
- Setting can create conflict: a blizzard, a strict school, a war.
- Authors build setting with sensory details (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste).
- Do not confuse mood (reader's feeling) with tone (the author's or narrator's attitude).
- Example: "Fog swallowed the streetlights, and somewhere a gate creaked on rusted hinges." The mood is eerie.
Practice
"Sunlight spilled across the kitchen table. The kettle hummed, and the smell of cinnamon rolls filled the house." The mood of this passage is best described as:
Sunlight, a humming kettle and baking smells create a cozy feeling.
Which detail is NOT part of a story's setting?
A character's fear is an internal trait, not a time or place.
In a story, a family's car breaks down on a desert highway with no phone signal. How does the setting mainly function?
The harsh, isolated desert becomes an obstacle.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 1 test.