Week One – Setting Discussion
Discussing the Setting
1. Go to the Novel Discussion Questions – Setting page at the right. Once there, on your own paper, answer the questions you find there. You do not have to answer them in complete sentences. In fact, you don’t even have to turn them in. Answering the questions on that page, will help you understand how Avi used setting to craft his tale.
2. Return to this page, and answer the following question(s):
- How does Avi establish a sense of time and place in the book?
- What are the images, the smells, the sounds that come into your mind as you think about Fulworth, Thorston’s workroom, the apothecary’s shop, and the churchyard?
Avi makes me think the setting of this book was in the year 1470 and some where in Britian maybe.
Fulworth: Old busted up town with little villages and under a rule of the reeve because i he always says i am the law so i most be hard.
Thorston’s workroom: a wooden dirty room with wood floors. Messy with thinks broken all around it.
Apothecary’s shop: a shop with creepy things in it waiting to sell even though it probably never will.
Church yard: empty, wet boring and scary
To me Avi establishes a time in place for us in the book by using such great detail. When I read parts in the book it’s as I feel I can really smell and see the things Avi describes. The way he describes using great detail really help me to focus because how things are described grab my attention. I think Avi establishes a time and place for us in the book by using great detail.
To me Mr.Avi establishes a time and place setting by not just telling but showing in a sense the setting by using by using very descriptive details to show the setting in the book.
The image that comes up to me when i think of Fulworth is an old small town with mostly poor people.The smell to it would be probably a strong hay smell as the others said.
Throston’s workroom would most likely be messy with everything all over the place.The smell would probably be a strong but weird.
The shop would probably be arranged neatly because of it being a store where people buy things with just a weird smell to it.
The churchyard would probably be deserted but i guess it will just have a normal outside smell.
HOW DOES AVI ESTABLISH A SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE IN THE BOOK?
Avi establishes a sense of time and place in the book by, first of all, providing the year. It already conveys a sense of the past and an undeveloped world. I wasn’t there when the class read the first chapter or so, but once I heard the world “alchemist,” I suddenly got the sense that the story did take place in older times because, on a more personal note, I had recently played a game that was set around the same era, and there were alchemists. I also notice how he describes the setting, which gives me a sense of time and place, but that will be more elaborated on in the next question.
WHAT ARE THE IMAGES, THE SMELLS, THE SOUNDS THAT COME INTO YOUR MIND AS YOU THINK ABOUT FULWORTH, THORSTON’S WORKROOM, THE APOTHECARY’S SHOP, AND THE CHURCHYARD?
May I also remind you again that I have not read the beginning of the book, and that all my assumptions are based on where the class left off. However, a grimy, old, hidden getaway (Thorston’s dwelling) didn’t seem like it would be fit in a modern time, or a present, but past, almost immediately telling me that it was indeed the past. Everything is described as such: when you could buy a kid for two cents, or when people still believed magic, or maybe just alchemy, perhaps, was a wrong doing. As for the apothecary, how many people nowadays supply even the most odd requests–those Sybil requested on Thorston’s orders?
i FEEL THAT AVi ESTABLiSHES A TiME AND PLACE SETTiNG BY BEiNG VERY DESCRiPTiVE. HE USES A LOT OF ADJECTiVES AND DETAiL iN HiS WRiTiNG. JUST BY READiNG THE FiRST SENTENCE YOU ALREADY KNOW THE YEAR, WHERE THE STORY iS TAKiNG PLACE, AND ABOUT THE TiME AND WEATHER.
FULWORTH: A DARK AND MYSTERiOUS TOWN. COLD AND FOGGY. HORRiS SMELLS.
THORSTONS WORKROOM: WEiRD THiNGS. DARK. MESSY.
APOTHECARY SHOP: CLUTTERED WiTH STRANGE iTMES FOR SALE.
CHURCHYARD: SMELLS GROSS. KiND OF LiKE A GRAVEYARD WiTH TOMBS AND THAT EERY FOG.
Avi establishes a time and place in the book by saying what year it took place in, and being very descriptive of Fulworth, Thorstons workroom, the apothecary’s shop, and the churchyard
He describes the city of Fulworth by telling you that it’s a cold, its winter’s night and, it’s foggy. It has mud-clogged streets, and crooked lanes. Also, it has decaying riverbanks, and crumbling city walls and it heightened the stench of rotten hay and offal, of vinegary wine and rancid ale. Which to me make me think that Fulworth is dirty, smelly, and not such a good place to live.
*NOT FINISHED!!!!!*
AVi ESTABLiSHED A VERY ViViD iMAGE OF THE 1046. WHEN YOU READ THE BOOK iT FEELS LiKE YOUR iN THE BOOK AND YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHiNG THAT SYBiL AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS SEE. THE WAY HE DESCRiBES FULW0RTH AND iTS SMELL iS VERY DESCRiPTiVE YOU CAN ALMOST SMELL FULW0RTH.
Avi establishes a very vivid sense of the time 1046.He uses many discriptive words to make you feel as if you were in Fulworth.When you read, you feel as if you are in a dark, hazy village, filled with muck, rot, and other decaying things.Also with reeves, alchemists, and ancient monks.
Avi establishes a sense of time and place in the book by being very dscriptive.His intense discriptions of the places and smells he describes makes me feel as though i were there at that time. It is obvious that this particular setting is a very long time ago. It kind of reminds me of a place like ‘Diagon Ally’ in the movie “Harry Potter”, but only alot more worse. Really smelly, dirty, and filthy.
Avi, the author, makes the the discription of the time and era very clear. He shows that you are in the middle ages. He does this by telling you about things like alchemists, reeves, and servants. When I think about Fulworth I see an old broken-down town and smell stale ale, roten food, and other things like that.
Does the author successfully draw you into the place and time depicted in this book? Why or why not?
Yes because I feel like I am actually in teh book.
Is there any change in setting?
The author takes us to different parts of the th etown but the condition of the places are similar.
How does the setting of the story affect:
the general atmosphere of the story?
It gives it an eery effect
the outcome of the story?
I havn’t finished the book yet
the characters?
It makes them seem kind of dark and creepy to me. Like in the movies where you see the hunchbacked witch with the pointed hat brewing in her big dutch pot and then letting out a crackly grin. She too, usually has a black cat. that’s what it makes me think of the atmosphere.
the emotions of the reader?
It amplifies it
1. How important is the setting to the story
It is very important because it gives you an idea of what the place looks like and sets you in a sort of creepy mood.
2. When does the story take place?
1046
3. Where does the story take place?
In a rundown city in a rundown filthy town.
4. Does the description of the setting create a vivid mental picture for the reader? Give examples.
Yes it does. I can really picture the smell of the town and the filthiness of the house and I really would not want to be there.
*i will continue this at another time.
**CONTINUED**
|Avi establish a sense of time and place in the book by describing the setting to a great extent. The first sentence of the book states, “it was in the year 1046, on a cold winter’s night, when a fog, as thick as wool and dank as a dead man’s hand, crept up from the River Scrogg into the ancient town of Fulworth.” This sentence gives the time: “the year 1046,” and also, “the ancient town of Fulworth.” It gives a sense of the place Fulworth by saying, “a fog, as thick as wool and dank as a dead man’s hand, crept up from the River Scrogg.”
||The images, the smells, the sounds that come into my mind as I think about..
-FULWORTH: Old and disgusting town; Smells of rotten hay, vinegary wine and rancid ale; has a dark and depressing look.
–THORSTON’S WORKROOM: Not well lit; Full of strange things; contains Thorston’s bed, which is dirty and rumpled.
—APOTHECARY’S SHOP: Shop which sells such things as gargoyle ears, spider legs…
—-CHURCHYARD: Horrible smell; Always foggy with a strange sense; Many tombs everywhere.
How does Avi establish a sense of time and place in the book?
Avi establishes the sense of time and place in the book by giving mass detail, he gives us the year and the description of the town the story will take place in. He uses dialect as well to create a sort of ancient time mood.
What are the images, the smells, the sounds that come into your mind as you think about Fulworth, Thorston’s workroom, the apothecary’s shop, and the churchyard?
Fulworth is an ancient town, with a common weather of cold and fog; an unpleaseant smell of rotten hay and offal as well as vinegary wine and stale ale wanders around the town with the costant muffled sound of church bells ringing. (Ch. 1: 1)
Thorston’s workroom is in a neglected corner of town, a house of stone…isolated. A room with mess all about, with “ingredients” and braziers to put together spells and potions. It’s described to smell disgusting with the constant use of gargoyle ears and lizard’s tail and spider legs.
The apothecary’s shop must be organized but extravagant (since it holds weird ingredients that Thorston needs), an unpleasant smell as well.
Churchyard has a gloomy and crypt like environment , since the tombs and gravestones are there, it also is a very foggy place where it smells like “humidity” in the air and everything seems different.
To me Avi uses discripitive vidid images. When he describes thorstons workroom or apothecarys shop or fulworth. He describes whats there and how there was no technolgy or anything. Avi wrote the book without words to show what life was like back in 1046 when witch craft and all that stuff happened. it may not be true but people to this day still belive there was suc things.
The images that came to me in fulworth are….
FULWORTH: A old beat down town, thats dark, and very sad. and smells like vinegary wine.
THORSTONS WORKROOM: thorstons bed, DiRTY.. and is sorta dark, full of weird things. and odo lives in there too.
APOTHECARYS SHOP: a shop thats sells things.
|Avi establish a sense of time and place in the book by describing the setting to a great extent. The first sentence of the book states, “it was in the year 1046, on a cold winter’s night, when a fog, as thick as wool and dank as a dead man’s hand, crept up from the River Scrogg into the ancient town of Fulworth.” This sentence gives the time: “the year 1046,” and also, “the ancient town of Fulworth.” It gives a sense of the place Fulworth by saying, “a fog, as thick as wool and dank as a dead man’s hand, crept up from the River Scrogg.”
||The images, the smells, the sounds that come into my mind as I think about..
FULWORTH: Old and disgusting town; Smells of rotten hay, vinegary wine and rancid ale; has a dark and depressing look.
THORSTON’S WORKROOM: Not well lit; Full of strange things; contains Thorston’s bed, which is dirty and rumpled.
APOTHECARY’S SHOP: Shop which sells such things as gargoyle ears, spider legs..
NOT FINISHED!!!
To me Avi gives us a vivid image of the world of 1046, the way he does this is through his excellent ability to convey his own mind’s imaginary world to us through stories such as this. By stating in the beginning what time frame it is right away, right away we think no modern technology, but instead back to dirt road and hovels. The place of the book is established through colorful adjectives and description.
The images that come to me about Fulworth are a small town with houses placed almost randomly, with desolate dirt roads.
Thorston’s workshop to me is almost like a dungeon, musty, dusty, damp and humid. With clutter everywhere.
The apothecary shop to me is clean and tidy, with a wooden door and a back work room. Just likes some shops today.
The churchyard misty and and fog filled with tombs scattered around it.