NARRATIVE CONVENTIONS

CHARACTERS

• There is no story without characters!
• Characters are who we relate to, like, dislike, feel sorry for or laugh with or at.
• We get to know characters by:
• - what they do
• - what they say
• -what others say about them

It is also a good idea to include what you know about the context, e.g. During the Depression and between the wars. Note that slavery had been abolished in 1863 but the folks in the Deep South never really accepted the African Americans as equals.

SETTING

• By and large, this is the time and place the novel covers
• It is broad rather then restricted. E.g The SETTING is not Scout's house, even though a lot of the action takes place there, but the town of Maycombe in the Deep South of America.
• You could also add that this was the time when the Depression was sweeping America and that people in the farming community were often very poor.