How to Analyze Social Setting in Literature
You cannot understand any literature until or unless you analyse the social setting which has been created by the author. Social setting is the overall environment in which the characters live. The environment may include religion, politics, economics, culture or any other element of the society which has been chosen by the author to address his ideas and themes.
It is not very difficult to analyse the social setting in the literature. All you have to do is to find a quite place for reading and follow the given steps to study the social setting to create an understanding about the story, characters and plot.
Instructions
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1
Find a quiet place for reading. You should have a pen and some blanks papers with you in order to take notes on social settings. Start reading and keep noting down all the things which you find related to the social setting created by the author. After taking notes, you have to arrange them in a sequence to create a connection between the things. Furthermore, you can also draw diagrams of the scenarios which have been mentioned in the literature to get more profound understanding about the social setting. In addition, you have to pay special attention to the images which have been included in the literature as they represent its social settings.
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2
Determine the patterns and themes which have been discussed by the author. Moreover, you will have to study the characters very well to get thorough understanding about the social settings. For instance, if the author have represented a society in his literature which is very close to its religion, it will be quite obvious that the characters will be close to their values and beliefs or they will have to follow the teachings in order to live as a good member of the society even if they want to follow their religion.
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You must also determine the motives of the characters and their actions and reactions towards the society so as to analyse the social setting in a prudent way. Besides, if you will be able to understand the difference between characters’ perceptions and expressions, you can create a very good understanding about the social setting.
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Now, put everything in perspective, characters, plot, themes and story, and analyse them in relationship with the overall social setting which has been created by the author.
