If You Come Softly- Setting (Literary Device)

The setting in the story If You Come Softly is located in Manhattan, New York. The settings switch places in Ellie's house, Percy Academy and Jeremiah's house. These settings impacts on the characters mood and dialogue throughout the story.

Percy Academy is a private school which creates a high class, and well-mannered atmosphere while reading. If they attended a different school, it may change the way I look at the settings. Ellie's house and Jeremiah's house are so different for one lives in the city and the other live in Brooklyn. From the information shown on the text, you imagine that this is happening recently. Maybe this year, or the last few years.

Weather contributes to the story as well. "It rained again on Friday, a warm, steady rain that turned the whole city gray. I sat in Mr. Hazelton's history class watching it. There was something sad about the rain. Marion had left on a rainy day. And Anna. The day she moved out it rained and rained. I turned back to my textback. Jeremiah must have left Precy. It was already October and still I had only seen him once since that first day." (If you come softy, pg 73, paragraph 1) Explaining the atmosphere helps bring the mood at a certain part of the book. Because of the raining weather, you feel gloomy more than happy when your reading this. You can also conclude from this part of the story, that it's the beginning of the school year as well. This helps to imagine how it's like when all the students and teachers are new and the beginning of learning.

Sights and Sounds affect the setting also and is used a lot during this book. "Miah sighed and turned toward the window. He would hear his father and Lois Ann laughing with their friends. He could hear girls outside chanting, Ten, twently, thirty, forty, one, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, two. And in the distance, he heard the vague sound of a basketball, someone bouncing it slowly, some young kid somewhere, learning how to handle the ball, hot to keep it near him. How to keep control." (If you come softy, pg 118, paragraph 2)

The sights and sounds create the atmosphere the main characters are in. This quote from the story explains that Miah's daily environment; explaining how children in his neighborhood would play ball. This atmosphere may also intertwine with his emotions. When I am reading this part of the story, I can image the little boy dribbling the basketball, and I can image friends playing with each other.

By: Bianca Johnson (edited by Michelle)