Compare and Contrast Essay

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Compare and Contrast Essay

The setting of a story is the time and place in which the story takes place. The author may include a specific date or time period, or leave it up to the reader to determine a time period by suggesting certain events. The author may choose to give specific examples and clues as to where the story takes place or may suggest certain things to clue the reader to where the story is taking place. The theme of a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight. It is the unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story. The theme of a story supports a view of life or reveals some insight into life. Another element of literature is the narrative voice and is told in what is called the point of view, it is who tells the story and how it gets told. These two parts of literature along with the setting are very important parts of fiction.

Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson and Alice Walkers Everyday Use are two stories of fiction, that both share elements and differ in many ways. The setting of each is different in many ways. The Lesson takes place in New York City, specifically in a department store. Before the department store it takes place in one of the ghettos of New York. In The Lesson Miss Moore takes the kids in her neighborhood to a department store to show them the things that people buy, and the things that they can buy. When you take a minute to actually think about what Miss Moore does you realize that she was showing the kids that they have the opportunity to have these things if they want too. She also implies that that having these things necessarily does not make you happy. These two things would be the theme of the story. Without the setting the story w...

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...n bringing out the theme. The setting sets the base work for the plot; it establishes an immediate connection with the reader both through description of surroundings and a mention of a time table. Settings can become more complex requiring more thought from the reader, some descriptions can go for pages on end paint a picture in the mind of the readers to refer back to, and to help them relate to the characters or objects at hand. From that base comes the plot, and in the plot is how the story is told. Through the narrators voice we are walked through the setting and told the conflicts that arise throughout the story. Through these conflicts we understand what the character is telling us, what he or she wants us to hear, and that is the theme. The author uses each one of these venues very strategically to get his message across, like a conductor to his orchestra.

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