Your topic sentences for your body paragraphs: Authors choose setting to reflect on their own context.

xt. Characters who conform to the norms of the setting in order for the author to criticize it Characters rebel against the norms of their setting to offer an alternative to it

Wessel Bartels The Middle Ages, that word alone, if you think about it, is enough to create hundreds of images in your mind. Pictures of castles, knights, airplanes and dragons. Wait, what? Airplanes, in a novel about the middle ages? That would be ridiculous, and for that reason we can say that the setting is of vital importance to the way an author writes his book and chooses his vocabulary, style and characters. This will be illustrated by comparing Things Fall Apart from Chinua Achebe, which takes place in Nigeria during the English colonization, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which takes place in about 1950, during the times of extreme racism in America. Both books feature great hints as to how the setting influences the decisions of the writer. We will see that that therefore the setting is often the driving force behind an authors choice in how he writes his work. The first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in 1950, and the main theme is racism. The writer, Harper Lee was also a part of this time, and has chosen to use her own circumstances from at the time. The novel is based on her own childhood experiences, and therefore has a very personal feel to it when it is read. Harper Lee uses her own point of view from the time and uses characters that apply to her ideas of the time. Writers will often incorporate such almost autobiographical elements in their story, and this is also the case in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. This novel takes place in Nigeria, during the time of English colonisation. It is about the Igbo people, a tribe that Achebe was a part of. He thus also incorporated his own private circumstances into the setting of his book, although the story takes place a little before he was born, so it is probably about stories he was told by his elders or other information rather than his own memories. Another thing authors do, is that they create characters which either conform or go against the norms of their setting. In the first case, where the characters conform to the norms of their setting, it is very important to look at what this setting is. In To Kill a Mockingbird we are looking at a small village, called Maycomb in Alabama, America. Since we are looking at a small village we should take into account that most of the characters are probably confirming the stereotype that we have of people in these times and in these circumstances. One of the characters that does this is Bob Ewell. He is part of the white Ewell family, a family that fully ties into the theme of racism, which is a keyword in the setting of the story, as mentioned before. Bob Ewell despises every Negro in Maycomb, and especially Tom Robinson, which he claims has sexually assaulted his daughter. The reason Harper Lee has incorporated a character like this in her novel is so she can criticize his ideas and norms. She does this by making him look like a very uncivilized and witless person by letting him say and do certain things which contribute to the idea she is trying to give us of Bob Ewell. She creates a character that is racist, in order to criticize racism. In Things Fall apart, we can see a same type of working. The book is criticizing the cruel colonists, and in order to do so Achebe had to create the characters of cruel colonists, also, by making them say and do certain things, such as the killing of an entire village because they killed one of the colonists. Deeds like this give us a better understanding of the time, but also give the writer a chance to criticize it.

The other type of character is the character that goes against the norm, in order to offer an alternative to the normal norms of the setting. In Things Fall apart this is Okonkwo, the protagonist and influential person within his tribe who goes against the norms of his surroundings. In the end of the book, when Okonkwo returns from his exile he finds that almost the whole of his village has turned to the side of the colonists, but Okonkwo refuses; he is offering the alternative. He says no to the colonists, and tries to find alternatives to it, and also tries to convince others to follow his example. In the end however, he fails, and takes his own life. In To Kill a Mockingbird the character that offers an alternative to the norms of racism and hate is Atticus. Atticus believes that black and white people are equal, and therefore also chooses to defend the negro Tom Robinson in court. He offers the alternative to racism, equality. His way of thinking is given extra credibility by his character, as Atticus is portrayed as a very wise and intelligent man. Sadly enough, also Atticus fails in his attempt to make a change, because Tom Robinson is still sentenced to prison, even though all of the evidence point towards his innocence. Both books feature both characters against and for the norms of the time, and they are both vital in writing a good story such as Things Fall apart and To Kill a Mockingbird. There are thousands of books which use similar ways of working. While often going unnoticed, writers will very often use a same way of writing their novels, since it is a very effective and powerful way of conveying a message while also being amusing to read. We have seen that setting is of extreme importance, and how writers use their setting to create characters and events. The end result of all this is that we now know that setting is very often the driving force behind an authors choice in writing his work, and that such a force often leads to the most wonderful and intriguing stories.