【正文】 e st ory? Does the author ( thr ough t he nar rat or ) make any gener al obser vat ions about l if e or human nat ur e? Do t he char act er s make any (Cauti on: Char act er s now and agai n wi l utt er opi nions wit h whi ch the r eader is not necesari ly supposed t o agr ee. ) Does the stor y cont ai n any especial y curi ous obj ects, myster ious fl at characters, signif icant anim al s, r epeated names, special al lusions, or whatever, that hint towar ds meani ngs l arger than such t hings ordi nar il y have? I n l iter ar y stor ies, such sym bol s or metaphor s may point t o cent ral themes. When we have worked our st atement of t heme, have we cast our st atement into general language, not j ust given a pl ot summar y? Does our statement hold t rue f or the stor y as a whole, not j ust part of it ? Chapter Four Set ti ng “Once upon a ti me there li ved a ki ng named Mi das i n Phrygi a. He loved gol d more than anything el se but his l it tl e daughter.” Thi s is t he opening sentences of “Golden Touch”, which i ntr oduces the t ime, place, and the usual m ent al i ty of the char act er. What i s set ti ng? An event occur s and a char act er exists i n a part icular t ime and pl ace. This part icular ti me and place is refer red t o as set ting. A set ing is t he background agai nst whi ch a char acter i s depi ct ed or an event nar rated. It s purpose is t o provide an i maginary li nk bet ween what happens i n the novel and what the r eader takes to be r eal it y. Li ke s om e other el ement s, set ing i s not pecul iar t o the novel. The reader f inds i t servi ng the same purpose in di f erent genr es. The tr adi ti onal way t o tel l a st ory r eveals m uch about set ti ng. Usual ly, a set ti ng consist s of t im e and pl ace. I t can also m ean cir cumstances such as Midas ’s mental it y. A set ing m ay be det ai led or sket chy. I t depends on t he novel ist’s pur pose of wr it ing and his idea of works of art . A set ti ng may or may not be symbol ic. Gener al ly, a set ti ng is m ore concer ned wi t h the physi cal aspects. Set ing i s cl osely relat ed wit h exposit ion i n t hat t hey both hel p to make possible the event s in t he novel . I n f act , an exposi ti on must have a set ing. But set ing goes al ong wit h every event i n t he novel wher eas exposi ti on is onl y the i niti ati ng act ion. 1. The el em ent s m aki ng up a set ing By the set ing of a st ory, we si mply m ean i ts pl ace and t ime, the physical , and somet imes spir it ual , backgr ound against which t he act ion of a nar ati ve takes pl ace. Ever y a stor y as shor t as t he one at t he begi nni ng of the i nt roducti on must be set in a cert ain pl ace and t ime: we have an “ol d, shutt ered house” and the pr esent tense suggest s tim e (t hough the present t ense i ndi cat es m uch more t han ti me it sel f in t he story) . The el ement s making up a set ing ar e gener al ly: ( 1) t he act ual geogr aphi cal l ocati on, i ts t opogr aphy, scener y, and such physical ar angements as the l ocat ion of t he wi ndows and door s in a room。 ( 4) the gener al envir onment of t he character s, f or example, r el igi ous, mental, mor al , social , and emot ional condit ions thr ough whi ch char act er s in the stor y move. ( Hol man and Harman, A Handbook to l it erature, 1986) But of ten, in an ef fecti ve st ory, set ting may fi gure as mor e than mer e background. It can make t hi ngs happen. I t can prompt char act ers t o act , bri ng them t o r eal izations, or cause them t o r eveal t hei r innerm ost natures, as we shal l see in John Cheever ’s short stor y “The Swimm er”. Fir st , as we have said, the i dea of set ti ng includes t he physical envi ronm ent of a st ory: a r egi on, a l andscape, a city, a vil lage, a st reet, a house—a part icular place or a ser ies of places wher e a story occurs. (Where a st or y t akes place is someti mes caled i ts l ocal e.) Places in f ict ion not onl y pr ovi de a location for an act ion or an event of the st or y but also provoke feeli ngs i n us. A sight of a gr een fi el d dott ed wit h f lutt eri ng daf fodil s af ect s us ver y dif fer ent ly fr om a sight of a dingy al ey, a t ropical jungle, or a sm al l house crowded wi th fur ni tur e. I n addi ti on to a sense of beauty or ugli ness, we usual y buil d up cert ai n asociati ons when we put our sel ves i n such a scene. We ar e depr esed by a di ngy al ley, not only because i t i s ugly, but because it may ar ouse a f eel ing, per haps someti mes unconsci ousl y, of pover ty, mi ser y, viol ence, vi ciousness, and the st ruggles of hum an bei ngs who have t o li ve under such condit ions. A tr opi cal j ungl e, f or example, i n Joseph Conr ad’s Heart of Darkness , might involve a pl icated anal ysi s: t he pleasur e of t he col ours and f or ms of veget ation, the di sf ort of humidi ty, heat, and insect s, a sense of m yst er y, hor ror , et c. The popul ari ty of Si r Walt er Scott ’s “Waverl ey” novels i s due in part t o t hei r evocat ion of a r omanti c mood of Scot land. The Engl ish novel ist Graham Gr eene apparentl y needed t o visit a f resh scene i n order to wri te a fr esh novel. Hi s abi li ty t o encapsul ate t he essence of an exot ic set ing i n a single book i s exempl if ied i n The Heart of the M at ter 。opi ni on about, and statement of , the t hem e. Moral i nferences drawn f rom most st ories: Mor al infer ences may be drawn fr om m ost stori es, no doubt, even when an aut hor does not i nt end his /her st ory t o be r ead t his way. In “A Clean, Wel Li ght ed Place”, we f eel t hat Hemi ngway is i ndi rectl y givi ng us advice f or properl y regarding and sympathi zi ng the l onel y, t he uncert ai n, and t he old. But obvi ously the stor y does not set f ort h a lesson that we are supposed to put i nt o pr acti c e.