Tuesday, March 5, 2013

What explicitly stated details help you to determine the setting in "A Christmas Memory"?

The author goes into great detail in the first paragraphs of the story to convey a very special setting, a memory from childhood that he has embellished.

Capote describes the kitchen in a comfortable country house. You can almost feel the roaring fire in the fireplace, as the boy tells the story.  The setting has a rural charm to it, the black stove, the fireplace, the rocking chairs, they all suggest a country lifestyle. 

In the first few paragraphs, he identifies the setting, the characters and the time period.

"Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town." (Capote)

"A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar." (Capote)

"The person to whom she is speaking is myself. I am seven; she is sixty-something, We are cousins, very distant ones, and we have lived together—well, as long as I can remember."    (Capote)

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