V4 lit 1 - setting and point of view

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

V4 setting & POV

Goals: 

You can identify the setting and POV of your book. 

You can provide a quote to prove the setting and POV of the book.

How much of your book have you read?

0-10%

10-20%

20-30%

30-40%

40-50%

50-60%

60-70%

70-80%

80-90%

(almost) finished the book!

Setting

Where and when

Setting

You need to know what the setting is and you should be able to explain its effect on the story.

Titanic example on the next slide.

Titanic - effect of the setting

• Real-life tragedy – The audience knows the ship will sink, adding tension.
• Class divide – Jack and Rose’s love story is intensified by
  strict social hierarchies.
• Isolation at sea – No escape makes the disaster more
  suspenseful.
• Technological arrogance – The belief in the "unsinkable"
  ship highlights human overconfidence.

Titanic - different setting

• Modern cruise ships have better safety – Fewer lives would be lost.
• Instant communication – Help would arrive quickly, reducing tension.
• Weaker class divisions – Jack and Rose’s romance
  wouldn’t face the same obstacles.
• Less historical weight – The film would lose its tragic
  inevitability.

Setting examples - books

1. Harry Potter series – Time: 1990s-2010s | Place: Hogwarts, United Kingdom
2. Brave New World – Time: Distant future (26th century) | Place: World State, primarily London
3. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) – Time: Dystopian future | Place: Panem (formerly North America)
4. They Both Die at the End (Adam Silvera) – Time: Near future | Place: New York City, USA

Setting examples - movies

1. Titanic – Time: 1912 | Place: The Atlantic Ocean, RMS Titanic
2. Mean Girls (2004) – Time: 2000s | Place: High school in Illinois, USA
3. Barbie (2023) – Time: Present day & an alternate reality | Place: Barbie Land & Los Angeles, USA
4. Oppenheimer (2023) – Time: 1920s-1960s | Place: USA (Los Alamos, New Mexico & Princeton, New Jersey)
5. Don't Look Up (2021) – Time: Present day | Place: USA & outer space

How to quote

1. Use quotation marks "..."
2. Add the page number
3. Write the full quote!

Example: "Gale and I divide our spoils, leaving two fish, a couple of loaves of good bread, greens, and apples on the table. We always wait to trade with Greasy Sae because we trust her not to cheat us." (p. 21)

Copy a quote from your book to show WHERE your book is set.

Copy a quote from your book to show WHEN your book is set.

Do you think your quotes show the setting clearly enough?

Yes (I should not lose these)

No (I should look for new ones)

Point of view

Stories can be told from different point of views. The POV refers to who is telling or narrating the story. Some points of view are more reliable than others.

"Harry had never been to London before. Although he'd been to big cities before—perhaps even bigger than London—nothing had prepared him for the sheer chaos of the place."

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

"Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in high flutter. The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent."

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

"He felt a sense of loss so deep inside himself that he was awash with sadness. It had happened again: the thing that he thought he had mastered had come back to haunt him. It wasn’t fair."

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

"The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs and pepper, streaked across the redness. Even death has a heart."

Narrator = death

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

"You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are."

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

Which one is the least reliable?

1. First person POV
2. Second person POV
3. Third person limited POV
4. Third person omniscient POV

From which point of view is your book written? What kind of effect does this have?

Copy a quote from your book to show the point of view in your book.

Any questions?

How did this go?

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