Comparing How Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, And Or Willa Cather Portray Aspects Of Small-Town Life

Setting explores the main idea of disempowerment and isolation and aptly allows the audience to contrast it with the life of the main character. From the story, we are told that the setting is in a newsagency shop in a country town near a harbour. We are also told that the country town has a smelly harbour breeze. By using the country town as the setting, the author has placed us as readers to imagine isolation and places being far away, making it easier to convey ideas of the story. The isolation of the country town illustrates the life of the main character. She is isolated and stuck in the shop and town where she has no power to leave due to her parents. For example, “Once a day the big Greyhound rolled past going north to the city” and “Sometimes she would bicycle out to the edge of town and look along the highways”. Using the word city, the author is creating an atmosphere of adventure and the highway creates a sense of belonging. Through setting, the author is able to covey the main idea of isolation and disempowerment effectively and letting us as readers connect the relationship between the setting and the main character’s life.

. I can’t help but feel out of place in this town, my every public move watched by people by the dozen. I feel like a complete foreigner in my own land, the townsfolk were bitter, cold and unwelcoming. It felt like there was something here, a spooky vibe radiating of every little thing. The town belonged in a book not a thing out of place, not a drunk to be scene, it was every preachers dream.

The main theme in this book is that of individual experience, which is written as if the reader was looking through the eyes of the narrator, not knowing the context, but understanding how life is for those who have been through the experience.

The setting is very joyful, graceful and inviting, but within the town hides much evil (mostly Miss Strangeworth) which one might also say is fairly ironic. The author is very skilled at making a well developed setting, which suits the themes of deception, secrets and incorrect first impression very well and makes the reader think more to conceive what is really happening or how the setting connects to theme, characters and other literary devices.

the plot in the story, the minimalistic style, and theme, the author better develops and conveys

Setting often provides more then just a mere backdrop for the action in the story. It is probably the most important part of the putting together a story. In this story the setting is a reflection of the character as much as the town. The physical setting, time setting and cultural settings are all important parts of this short story,

The section begins with a description of the town, “After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust to the direst mud”(Capote 1). By including these details in the description of the town it shows that the town is a very old fashioned town that is behind the societies that are in more developed, larger cities in America. Capote goes on, “The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have be converted into apartments”(Capote 2). With the bank having been closed around the time of the depression it shows that the town no longer trusted the government after the banks failed them and they do all their business between themselves. The town is a very closed off from the national system and the only connection they have is through their post office. All these descriptions cause the town to be a perfect picture of a safe, rural community where nothing bad happens and people all depend on each other.

The way Michael describes the town in chapter one is so vivid and pure, it makes me wish I had a place to go as beautiful and meaningful to me, as New Auburn is to him. This is where he belongs. Part of belonging to a small town though, means relating to the people living in

1. What descriptive details does the author use to make it clear that the setting of the story is a small town?

In addition to including the most boring of details, Capote uses a great deal of imagery to describe the town and its residents. Focusing mostly on visual appeal, he describes the "sulphur-colored paint" and "flaking gold" to reveal the town's appearance and has-been status. Portraying the area as one that has seen better days, Capote writes about the "old stucco structure" that no longer holds dances, the crumbling post office, and the bank that now fails to serve its original purpose.” Combining visual imagery with hints of desolation, Capote attempts to reveal the gray and boring nature of the town through its appearance. He does not, however, rely only on visual details; in describing the local accent as "barbed with a prairie twang," he uses both auditory and visual appeal to make one imagine a ranch-hand's tone of voice and pattern of speech as he describes the events of his farming days. The "hard blue skies and desert-clear air" contribute to a feeling of emptiness, an emotional vacancy that seems omnipresent in the small town. Finally, even "the steep and swollen grain elevators" that represent the town's prosperity are seen in a solemn and mysterious light, as Capote makes certain to mention that the townspeople camouflage this abundance without explaining why they choose to do so.

To convey my point i will start by talking about imagery. The beginning of the story painted and image of wonder and adventure. Jeanette always talked of exploring the desert and finding gorgeous rocks. Jeanette and Brian would go into the desert at dawn and would not return until they would fill their pockets up with tons

the most important literary elements in the story. He takes a young black boy and puts

By using different writing techniques in this story set it apart from other stories. She is very descriptive when explaining her childhood street. Cisneros

The citizens begin to associate with the outside world that had once despised them, and they became "eager to get away and try someplace else" (6). The town of Haven "had gone from feet to belly in fifty years" (5) and because of this the "New Fathers" decide to dismantle the Oven and relocate. The "New Fathers" sought to keep the dream of a paradise alive because they knew "what they might become if they did not begin anew" (6). Fifteen families pack their bags and leave to found the town of Ruby, a town isolated by ninety miles from anything.

To begin with, the story is told chronologically by Camara Laye. He is telling the story in a first-person point of view. For example, the story starts when he was five or six years old when he saw his father’s spirit guide and how he continually grows up to learn more wisdom from his family and friends. The structure of the book fit its topics because his life continually changed throughout the story which he had to learn and adapt to the environment. For example, he visited his relatives in Tindican which they had different expectations of him. His relatives wanted him to become farmer and he had adapted to the simple life of the community.