【正文】 man beings who have to live under such conditions. A tropical jungle, for example, in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, might involve a plicated analysis: the pleasure of the colours and forms of vegetation, the disfort of humidity, heat, and insects, a sense of mystery, horror, etc. The popularity of Sir Walter Scott’s “Waverley” novels is due in part to their evocation of a romantic mood of Scotland. The English novelist Graham Greene apparently needed to visit a fresh scene in order to write a fresh novel. His ability to encapsulate the essence of an exotic setting in a single book is exemplified in The Heart of the Matter。 (3) the time or period in which the action takes place, for example, the late eighteenth century in history or winter of the year。By the setting of a story, we simply mean its place and time, the physical, and sometimes spiritual, background against which the action of a narrative takes place. Every a story as short as the one at the beginning of the introduction must be set in a certain place and time: we have an “old, shuttered house” and the present tense suggests time (though the present tense indicates much more than time itself in the story). The elements making up a setting are generally: (1) the actual geographical location, its topography, scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room。Usually, a setting consists of time and place. It can also mean circumstances such as Midas’s mentality. A setting may be detailed or sketchy. It depends on the novelist’s purpose of writing and his idea of works of art. A setting may or may not be symbolic. Generally, a setting is more concerned with the physical aspects. Setting is closely related with exposition in that they both help to make possible the events in the novel. In fact, an exposition must have a setting. But setting goes along with every event in the novel whereas exposition is only the initiating action.What is setting?“Once upon a time there lived a king named Midas in Phrygia. He loved gold more than anything else but his little daughter.” Does our statement hold true for the story as a whole, not just part of it?Does the story contain any especially curious objects, mysterious flat characters, significant animals, repeated names, special allusions, or whatever, that hint towards meanings larger than such things ordinarily have? In literary stories, such symbols or metaphors may point to central themes.Does the main character in any way change in the story? Does this character arrive at any eventual realization or understanding? Are you left with any realization or understanding after finishing reading the story? P, and Faulkner’s Barn Burning concern the theme of “initiation into maturity.” Such general descriptions of theme can be useful, especially if we want to sort a large number of stories and novels into rough categories, but the fact that they are similar in theme does not mean that they mean the same thing. The attitude towards the theme may be very different: the tone of treatment may be, for example, either ic or tragic, straightforward or ironic. The writer’s vision of life is the special underlying fact of a story, and a theme, abstractly stated, is not the same thing as a vision of life. And we suggest anyway that, in the beginning, you look for whatever truth or insight you think the writer of a story intends to reveal. Try to state a theme in a sentence. By doing so, we will find ourselves looking closely at the story. Kennedy and Gioia make a helpful suggestion to consider the following points when we think about the theme of a story: Moral inferences may be drawn from most stories, no doubt, even when an author does not intend his/her story to be read this way. In “A Clean, WellLighted Place”, we feel that Hemingway is indirectly giving us advice for properly regarding and sympathizing the lonely, the uncertain, and the old. But obviously the story does not set forth a lesson that we are supposed to put into practice. We can say for sure that “A Clean, WellLighted Place” contains several themes and other statements could be made to take in Hemingway’s view of love, of munication between people, of dignity. Great stories, like great symphonies, frequently have more than one theme.opinion about, and statement of, the theme. Moral inferences drawn from most stories: When we say that the title of Pride and Prejudice conveys the theme of the novel or that Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Grapes of Wrath treat the themes of slavery and migratory labor respectively, this is to use theme in a larger and more abstract sense than it is in our discussion of Hemingway’s “A Clean, WellLighted Place.” In this larger sense it is relatively easy to say that Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Updike’s A amp。Look back once more at the title of the story. What does it indicate in relation to the whole story?Does the author (through the narrator) make any general observations about life or human nature? Do the characters make any (Caution: Characters now and again will utter opinions with which the reader is not necessarily supposed to agree.)When we have worked our statement of theme, have we cast our statement into general language, not just given a plot summary? Chapter Four SettingThis is the opening sentences of “Golden Touch”, which introduces the time, place, and the usual mentality of the character. An event occurs and a character exists in a particular time and place. This particular time and place is referred to as setting. A setting is the background against which a character is depicted or an event narrated. Its purpose is to provide an imaginary link between what happens in the novel and what the reader takes to be reality. Like some other elements, setting is not peculiar to the novel. The reader finds it serving the same purpose in different genres. The traditional way to tell a story reveals much about setting.1. The elements