【正文】 his contemporar y Evel yn Waugh stated t hat t he West Af r ica of that book r eplaced t he tr ue rem em ber ed West Af r ica of his own experi enc e. Such power is not unm on: t he Yor kshi re moor s have been r omant ici zed because Emi ly Bronte wr ot e of t hem i n Wut hering Hei ght s, and l it er ary t our i st s have vi si ted Stokeon Trent in nor thern Engl and because i t pr ises the “Five Towns” of Ar nold Ben’s novels of t he ear ly t went i et h centur y. Thus, a reader ’s r eact ion t o a place is not mer el y based upon the way it looks, but upon the potenti alit ies of action suggest ed by it . Pl aces m at t er greatl y to many writ ers . For instance, the Fr ench noveli st Balzac, bef or e wr it ing a st or y set in a t own, he woul d go and visit t hat t own, select a few lanes and houses, and descri bes t hem in det ai l, down t o their ver y sm els. In his view the pl ace i n which an event occur s was of equal moment wit h t he event it self , and it has a par t to pl ay. Another exampl e is Thomas Har dy, under whom the pr esentati on of set ti ng assumes an unusual i mport ance. Hi s “We ssex” vil lages cast int angibl y such as spel l upon the vil lagers t hat once they leave their hometowns t hey wil l inevitabl y suf fer f rom disaster s, and t he fart her t hey ar e away f rom their hometowns, the mor e, t er ible their disast ers wi l be. For example, in the Tes of t he D’Urbervi l es, the Val e of Bl akemor e was t he pl ace wher e Tes was bor n and her l if e was to unf old. Ever y cont our of t he sur rounding hi ls was as personal t o her as t hat of her relat ives’ f aces。 ( 3) t he ti me or peri od in whi ch the acti on takes pl ace, f or example, the l at e eighteenth centur y in hi st ory or wi nte r of the year。 P, and Faul kner ’s Bar n Burni ng concern the theme of “ini ti at ion i nto m at uri ty.” Such gener al descri pt ions of theme can be usef ul, especial y i f we want to sort a l arge number of stor ies and novel s into rough cat egor ies, but t he fact that hey ar e sim ilar i n theme does not m ean t hat t hey mean the same thi ng. The at it ude towards t he theme may be ver y dif fer ent : t he tone of tr eatment may be, f or exampl e, eit her i c or tr agi c, str aightf orwar d or ir onic. The wri ter ’s visi on of l if e i s the special under lyi ng fact of a st ory, and a theme, abstr act ly st at ed, i s not t he same t hing as a vi si on of li fe. And we suggest anyway t hat , in t he begi nni ng, you l ook f or whatever t rut h or insight you think t he wr it er of a stor y i nt ends t o reveal. Try to stat e a theme i n a sent ence. By doing so, we wi l f ind ourselves looking cl osely at t he st ory. Kenedy and Gi oi a make a helpf ul suggesti on to consider the f ollowi ng points when we thi nk about the t hem e of a st ory: Look back once mor e at he ti tl e of the stor y. What does it i ndi cat e in r elati on to the whole st ory? Does the mai n char act er in any way change in t he st ory? Does thi s char act er ar ri ve at any event ual r eal izati on or understanding? Ar e you lef t wi t h any reali zati on or under st andi ng af ter f inishing r eadi ng the stor y? Does the author (t hrough the nar rator ) make any general observati ons about li fe or human natur e? Do the character s make any ( Cauti on: Character s now and agai n wil l utt er opini ons wi t h which t he reader i s not necessar il y supposed to agr e. ) Does t he st ory contai n any especi al y cur ious objects, myst eri ous f lat char act ers, si gni fi cant animal s, r epeated names, speci al al usi ons, or whatever , that hi nt towards meanings l ar ger t han such t hi ngs or di nar i l y have? I n l iter ary stor ies, such sym bol s or metaphor s may poi nt t o cent ral themes. When we have worked our st atement of t hem e, have we cast our st atement into general language, not j ust given a pl ot summ ar 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 t here 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 daught er.” Thi s is t he opening sentences of “Golden Touch”, which i ntr oduces the t ime, place, and t he usual m ent alit y of the character. What is set t ing? An event occurs and a character exi st s in a par ti cul ar ti me and place. This par ti cul ar t im e and pl ace i s r ef er ed to as seti ng. A set ti ng i s the backgr ound against which a char act er is depicted or an event nar at ed. I ts pur pose i s to pr ovi de an im agi nar y l ink between what happens in t he novel a nd what t he reader t akes t o be reali ty. Like some ot her elements, set ti ng is not peculi ar to t he novel. The r eader f i nds i t ser vi ng the same pur pose in dif ferent genr es. The tr aditi onal way t o t el l a st ory reveal s much about set ti ng. Usual y, a set ing consi st s of ti me and place. I t can al so m ean ci rcumstances such as Mi das ’s m ent al it y. A set ti ng may be det ail ed or sketchy. I t depends on the novel ist’s purpose of wr i ting and hi s idea of works of art . A set ti ng may or may not be sym bol ic. Gener al y, a set ing i s more concer ned wit h t he physical aspect s. Set ing i s closel y r el at ed wi th exposi ti on in t hat t hey bot h hel p t o make possibl e the event s in the novel . In f act , an exposit ion must have a set ing. But set ing goes along wi th every event in t he novel whereas exposit ion i s onl y the i nit iati ng act ion. 1. The el ements m aki ng up a set ing By t he set ti ng of a st ory, we si mply mean it s pl ace and t im e, t he physical, and somet imes spir it ual , background agai nst whi ch the act ion of a nar rati ve takes pl ace. Every a st or y as shor t as the one at the begi nning of the i ntr oducti on