Every book, passage, or short story has a setting. A setting is a place where a book or story is taking place. Settings are extremely important and help readers tremendously by helping then create an image in their head of where the story takes place. Normally the plot of a book depends on the setting, therefore if you change the setting then you change the plot. For example, the Uglies series written by Scott Westerfeld and The Giver written by Lois Lowry both take place in a futuristic universe; if the settings changed in either of these books it would dramatically effect the plot in the books as well.
In the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld the plot relies on the setting. In the futuristic
universe that this book takes place in there are hoverboards, a city surrounded
by walls, and perfect weather all the time. All of these aspects involve the
plot and the setting. For example, if the city that was described so vividly in
the book wasn’t surrounded and bordered by towering walls then there would be
no reason that Tally would feel imprisoned and therefore she probably wouldn’t
have run away in the first place. To add on to that if they didn’t live in such
a futuristic world with technology beyond our time then there would be no such
thing as a hoverboard. The entire plot relies on the use of the hoverboard for
transportation so if there weren’t hoverboards the plot would be severally changed and effected. Also the perfect climate
that was expressed in the trilogy is very key in Tally’s survival once she
makes the decision to leave the city. If the climate was not perfect all the
time then Tally could have died after she left the city because of weather
conditions like a freezing blizzard or a scorching desert. Therefore the
setting in the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld plays a big part in the
plots of the series.
Although the Uglies series written by Scott
Westerfeld is a great example of how a setting affects the plot of a book another
fantastic example of that concept is the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. The
Giver takes place in a world where they only see black and white, are
assigned careers, and have to live by a running list of rules. One example
expressed in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry is that fact that they can
only see two colors: black and white. If the citizens in the book could see
color then the plot would be dramatically affected because the entire plot of
the novel relies strongly on the imperfections of this town such as how they
are color blind. In modern day everyone gets to choose their careers based on
their interests but in The Giver they get theirs assigned to them. The plot would change entirely if the
citizens were given the opportunity to pick and choose the careers of their
choice, after all the whole plot of the book is based off the fact that Jonas
is given the job of The Receiver at the Ceremony of Twelve. Therefore if the
citizens got to pick their jobs in the book The Giver the plot would
completely change. Lastly, one more crucial part of the setting that affects
the plot in this book is that the citizens of this establishment are forced to
abide by a extremely long list of rules. If they didn’t have rules and were
more carefree and easy-going then that also would have changed the plot. Those
are three examples of how if the setting of the book The Giver by Lois
Lowry changed so would the plot of the book as well.
If the settings in the books The Giver by Lois Lowry
and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld were altered then the plot of
the books would be dramatically altered as well. Both books rely very strongly on
their settings to help readers visualize what world the characters live in and
depend on their plots to tell the story.
The setting and the plot of a book go hand-and-hand and if a book was
missing a setting or missing a plot then that book would suffer from being
extremely uninteresting. Therefore the setting of a book can change the plot of
the book and also the entire story as a whole.
