Finding Meaning in the Setting

When setting and character are well-wedded, each impacts and changes the other. The setting of the War Between the States in Gone With the Wind impacts Scarlett O'Hara and changes her from a finicky flirt to a determined survivor. It changes Rhett Butler from a self-seeking opportunist to a man of honor and self-sacrifice. These characters have a reciprocal impact upon the South they live in. Scarlett changes the way business is done in her town, and one of Rhett's main goals becomes carving out a niche of respectability for his baby daughter in the community.

Because the story's theme originates from the main characters' inner needs and growth, the impact of the setting on the characters is directly related to the theme. Scarlett's inner need is belonging (at least, in the movie version). She tries to satisfy this basic human need by developing the mistaken goal of belonging to Ashley Wilkes. The setting of the War generates conflict. It hastens Ashley's marriage to Melanie. It sweeps Ashley away into the prolonged chaos of war. It traps Scarlett with Melanie in Atlanta and forces her to save the life of the woman she considers a usurper of her place in Ashley's life. As the South is changed by War, its impact upon Scarlett changes, too. This relationship between Scarlett and the South shapes the meaning of the story because each time one affects a change upon the other, it moves Scarlett closer or farther away from what will truly satisfy her inner need--to belong to the land Tara.

Scarlett's real journey is to develop a relationship and appreciation for the land of her birth. In the beginning of the story, she lightly despises Tara. After the War ends, she clings to Tara because she associates it with the parents she loved and lost. Still, she would toss it aside for Ashley. After she marries Rhett, she begins to appreciate Tara for itself and the solace only it can provide. By the end of the story, when Ashley's grief and Rhett's abandonment plunges her into her worst nightmare come to life--no one to belong to--she remembers her father's admonition: "The land is the only thing that lasts. It'll come to you, this love of the land." It's the progressive change in Scarlett's attitude toward Tara that ultimately shapes the theme of Gone With the Wind.

However, characters won't change unless they want to. Even the most dramatic setting cannot force a character to grow. Imagine a character relaxing on a sunny beach in Miami. Within hours a category-five hurricane blows in, threatening death and destruction for all in its path. The basic desire for survival should compel her to make some change in her behavior--to abandon sunbathing and run inland as fast as possible. But, what if she doesn't want to survive? What if her whole purpose were to take a week's vacation and commit suicide on the seventh day? And the hurricane blows in on the evening of the sixth?

Motivation is the writer's tool to force the character and the setting off their parallel tracks and on a collision course for thematically meaningful change. Continuing the example of the sunbather... What if her motivation for committing suicide is that she recently lost a young child? What if a young mother she befriends during her vacation temporarily entrusts her toddler to the protagonist's care, then is prevented from returning when the incoming roads are closed? What if the last thing her new friend says to her before the cell phone batteries die is to beg the protagonist to save her baby's life? Now the character is set up for the setting to impact her. If she doesn't change her planned course of action, then the life of an innocent child will be forfeited. To save the child's life and redeem her own past, she is forced by the setting to save her own life--to change in a way that contributes to the meaning of the story.

The story's setting doesn't have to be as big as a war or as catastrophic as a natural disaster. It could be as simple as one suburban street at Christmas time (Skipping Christmas, John Grisham) or as complex as the women's suffrage movement in America (Catching Katie, Robin Lee Hatcher). The key to selecting a setting that evokes the theme of the story is to become familiar with what's stereotypical and atypical about the setting. What are the physical features of the environment? How is the setting defined by the time period? What are the prevailing attitudes of the inhabitants? Then, armed with answers to those questions, ask another: What issues naturally arise in this type of setting?

For setting to impact the character and shape the theme, it has to get the character's attention. If the protagonist isn't paying attention to her environment, then she'll miss the opportunities it presents for change and even the strongest motivation in the world will be wasted. One way to get the character's attention is by making her a fish out of water. Toss her into a setting so unfamiliar it startles her to attention. Another way is to introduce something new (that's also relevant to the character's goals and the story) to the current setting. A third way lies in creating an event that snaps open the character's eyes to notice things about her surroundings that she previously overlooked. Occasionally an epiphany occurs when nothing about the setting changes at all, when the same thing happens the same way once too often and the character begins to pay attention to the fierce rigidity of the status quo.

Setting does more than orient the reader within a scene or time period. Through impacting the characters in meaningful ways, the setting orients the reader to the story's theme. The skillful union of setting, character, and theme is a love triangle destined for a happy ending on any reader's "keeper" shelf.

This article previously appeared in the January 2004 issue of Write to the Heart, the e-newsletter of American Christian Fiction Writers (formerly ACRW).

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