1. ASManager2.zip Driver
2. F_TIME.txt File Contents

F_TIME.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2.zip)

Name: <  >
Class: <  >
Date: <  >



Time and Place


     Does a cheery fire glow in the grate?
     Does a brisk breeze stir the Norway pines?

     Is it early morning, before even one bird sings?
     Is it the dead of night when each sound lurks?


Setting! The time and place where events happen or a character lives, works, or plays.

In this file, we look at the effect of time and place to reveal character.


Below, read two examples that show time and place.

In "The Story of a Hero," the Russian writer Maxim Gorky wrote:

Darkness was the thing I feared most. I took it to be not an 'absence' of light but an independent force hostile to it. When its gray, impalpable dust threw a shadow in the air and, condensing, growing black, swallowed up the trees, the houses, the furniture in the room, I waited for it to become hard as stone and everything alive to be petrified in it, including myself.

Excerpted from "The Story of a Hero"
By Maxim Gorky


The French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote in Madame Bovary:

Sometimes squalls blew up, winds that suddenly swept in from the sea over the plateau...and filled the countryside with fresh, salt-smelling air. The whistling wind would flatten the reeds and rustle the trembling beech leaves, while the tops of the trees swayed and murmured. Emma would pull her shawl close about her shoulders and get up...The sun was setting; the sky showed red between the branches; and the identical trunks of the straight line of trees were like a row of brown columns against a golden backdrop; a terror would seize her...

Excerpted from Madame Bovary
By Gustave Flaubert



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Compare and contrast the settings in Gorky and Flaubert. Write one- or two-word answers.

Time of day in the Gorky passage? Flaubert?


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Predominant feeling in the Gorky passage? Flaubert?


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List words that support the feeling you named for the Gorky passage.


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For the Flaubert passage.


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Contrast Gorky's first person narrator, or "I" character, to Flaubert's Emma.

Name a word to characterize Gorky's narrator.


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Name a word to characterize Flaubert's Emma.


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Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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You now have a number of words to describe quite different settings and feelings -- words that reveal quite different characters! You may wish to draw from those lists as you create your own setting to reveal a character.

Let's begin with character, a character who will take shape in your imagination.

My character's leading characteristic is:


Reminder: The one or two words to characterize your imaginary person need not be explicitly stated in your sketch. But if you don't state those characteristics, they must be strongly implied through detail and description! You must "know" that quality to write to it.


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Consider your character's appearance by establishing his/her:

Age
Sex
Physical appearance
Dress
Mannerisms (for example, a gesture, frown, or habit)


Reminder: The purpose of the lists you are completing are to "flesh out" your character inside your own head. They will be ideas to accept or reject in the actual writing of your sketch. Pick and choose from them, thoughtfully.


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Consider your character's actions within a specific setting. Describe his/her main behavior at one of these places:

Home
Work
School
Play
Elsewhere (state where)


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Describe your character's attitude or feeling while in the setting you've just established.


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Tell why your character thinks or feels the way you've just stated.


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Decide if your character's thoughts or feelings are reasonable or unreasonable (rational or irrational).


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Reminder: When we tag a person or a character with a quality or characteristic, we need to support it with evidence. The evidence may be details based on fact or opinion. The events may be real or imaginary.



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Create the Setting

You already know (if you don't change your mind!) "where" your character is as you draft your sketch. Describe the place, listing one or two words for each item. Skip questions that do not push your setting forward!


Outside/inside


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Condition (pleasant, spanking new, old, decrepit)


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General surroundings (remote, urban, lonely, crowded)


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Time of day


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Predominant color(s) of the setting


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Predominant scenery of or near the setting (building, trees)


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Predominant mood created by the setting (eerie, calm)


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Before Drafting Your Sketch

Thinking time! Think about your character -- his/her leading quality and how he/she fits the setting you've just created. Is there a conflict? Fine! Try working your character into the setting. If you continue to feel the setting is wrong for the character, change it. Your goal in this assignment is to write a setting to fit the character. As you think, jot some notes.


Notes

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Draft the Sketch

Write your character into a setting. Try writing it longer by half than either the Gorky or Flaubert models you read. 


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Rewrite the Sketch

Make a copy of your draft at the <  > angle brackets below. Then revise your sketch using these techniques:

Change word order.
Replace repetitions of a name with a pronoun.
Use strong verbs.
Replace general words with specific words.
Delete unnecessary words.


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Note: If your sketch is shorter after rewriting, fine! Is it also stronger? If it is longer, does each word and idea count? Your goal is not to create length, but to create a character revealed through time and place.



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Peer Exchange


Confer with your partner. Discuss the details of the setting (and/or appearance, action, behavior, and speech). Do they support the character's leading quality?

You may want to print just your sketch for this purpose.

Scroll up and revise and edit your work to strengthen it.



If you haven't done so already, name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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end of activity
Copyright Renaissance Learning, Inc.