Chapters 19 and 20
Created by: Het, Nitin, Mal, and Ben

CHPATER 19

Why setting

• A setting is almost never chosen arbitrarily - creates a complex effect
• Should become aware of literary geography - “humans inhabiting spaces and spaces inhabiting humans”.
• Power to create characters and shape atmospheres
• Illustrated by a single image of being "home" can be magnetic, elusive, or suffocating - Characters can both try to find it or escape it
• For example: In The Awakening the pigeon house serves as a symbol for independence and self growth
• Here are a couple of ways...

a DIFFERENT STORYLINE

• Can serve as a character or antagonism - protagonist has to fight their way through the natural world
• Becomes an embodiment of the conflict in the story
• Seen in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where the story is literally not posssible without the Mississippi River
• An attempt to increase plot momentum

a New psyche

• Geography serves as a metaphor for the mind or the "psyche" of a character
• Characters travel to a place to discover their discriptions of the world around them are based in their own thoughts and personal factors
• This creates a trope of locations where certain things are expected to happen - Sending someone south would cause them to "run amok".

Literary Traditions

• Other characteristics of the environment are associated with literary traditions that are largely symbolic
• The prairie in American literature serves as a common symbol for hope and a new future
• This model soon became labeled as "cliche"
• Did not completely disappear but became much more detailed rather than "basic"
• Scenes are now much more dynamic and dramatic - allows the reader to use own logic
• Consider the Question: "Why did Jack and Jill go up the Hill" - Not the literal answer but what symbolic purpose did it serve in the piece of writing

CONTEXT IS KEY

• Context is essential because geographies are often compared to give a full effect
• For example hills and valleys do not have a fixed meaning but it is when they are contrasted and clashed against each other that the high vs the low distinction is made into meaning

Chapter 20

BEhavior is not personal

• Historically human life has been affected and governed by the seasons
• The change our behavior and our tendencies but also signify their own sets of customs
• Over time they have largely represented the same things which creates linkages in literature that is written large time periods apart
• Seen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Spring represents the exciting and blossoming nature of the princess but as the seasons change so does the situation

CREATE A CULTURE

• Seasons as well as their effects can create hardships and barriers that must be dealt with
• Can serve as a metaphor for events in the character's life
• Religious and moral beliefs are often ascribed onto seasons
• Intertwined with human life - Indicate what needs to be done and foreshadow what is coming in the future

INNOVATION

• To avoid being cliche writers experiment with new meanings and symbols
• This is most often seen when authors depict the relationship between seasons and the plot in an ironic fashion
• No symbol has a completely predetermined meaning and different groups have different associations making context once again key
• For example each culture has different ceremonies and traditions that require special attention to season and location

POINT OF REFRENCE

• Seasons serve as a dramatic shift in novels that marks a change in the character's life
• They serve as clarifying the time and can often serve as a symbolic reference to emotions
• A change in season is not purely to denote time passing but rather a reader must note WHAT seasons are passing to understand a broader tone and mood shift present in the work