MYP YEAR : 3

UNIT 3: From page to stage

SUBJECT: English Language and Literature

GLOBAL CONTEXT: Identities and relatioships

Work sheet 1

Learning Objective: Understanding the influence of setting in plot development in literary texts.

Importance of setting

Setting is the location of a play. It is the time and place when and where the action of the play takes
place. Setting is very important in a play because it helps us to appreciate the background of the
play. Also, in productions it helps the designers to design appropriate locale, atmosphere, and
costume for the play. It helps us visualize where the characters “live” in the stories we read. It’s also
important because it gives us a head start in understanding the plot and making predictions about
events in stories.

Read the following excerpts from Chapter 2 and 13 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark
Twain. Tom Sawyer is a boy who lives in the small Missouri town of Hannibal in the 1870s.

As you read the excerpt, highlight or underline the words or phrases that relate to the setting.

1. Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with
life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There
was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom and the
fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with
vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and
inviting.

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed
the fence, and all gladness left him, and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty
yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.
Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it
again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of
unwhitewashed fence and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.

a. What is going on in this part of the story?

b. How does the setting of this section support the idea that Tom is painting a fence, but he
is not happy about doing it?
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In this section, Tom and his friends Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper have run away from home to
become pirates.
2. Three miles below St. Petersburg, at a point where the Mississippi River was a trifle over a mile
wide, there was a long, narrow, wooded island, with a shallow bar at the head of it, and this
offered well as a rendezvous. It was not inhabited; it lay far over toward the further shore,
abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest. So Jackson's Island was chosen. Who were
to be the subjects of their piracies was a matter that did not occur to them. Then they hunted up
Huckleberry Finn, and he joined them promptly, for all careers were one to him; he was
indifferent. They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on the river-bank two miles above
the village at the favorite hour– which was midnight. There was a small log raft there, which they
meant to capture. Each would bring hooks and lines, and such provision as he could steal in the
most dark and mysterious way–as became outlaws. And before the afternoon was done, they
had all managed to enjoy the sweet glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would
"hear something." All who got this vague hint were cautioned to "be mum and wait."
About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles and stopped in a dense
undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the meeting-place. It was starlight, and very still. The
mighty river lay like an ocean at rest. Tom listened a moment, but no sound disturbed the quiet.
Then he gave a low, distinct whistle. It was answered from under the bluff. Tom whistled twice
more; these signals were answered in the same way. Then a guarded voice said:

"Who goes there?"

"Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names."

"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas." Tom had furnished these
titles, from his favorite literature.

"'Tis well. Give the countersign."

Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to the brooding night:

"Blood!"

Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it, tearing both skin and
clothes to some extent in the effort. There was an easy, comfortable path along the shore under
the bluff, but it lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate.

a. How did the setting of the novel on the Mississippi River affect the plans of the boys?
b. What element of the setting influences Tom’s decision to tumble his ham over the bluff and
scramble after it?
c. How does the time of day influence the boys’ actions?

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