The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh

                                    

                                                 

              I've just recently finished reading a short story called The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh, which is written by Ray Bradbury. This short story is about a fourteen year drummer boy named Joby, who wakes up on a April night worried about the event to come. His first battle. The setting is important because it helps the reader visualize, or picture, what's going on in the story and understand how the setting could, if you think about, change the character's decisions/choices.



              The setting is important because if the author hadn't described the setting in the story, the reader wouldn't be able to picture where the events of the story are taking place. This is true because, if the reader doesn't know where the story is taking place, the reader could visualize the events of the story occurring almost anywhere. They would have to guess. For example, the reader could visualize apples falling from an apple tree instead of blossoms falling from an orchard tree because (if) Ray Bradbury hadn't described the setting in the story, the reader wouldn't know that there were orchard trees in the story.



             The setting is also important because if the author had not described where the story is taking place, the reader wouldn't really understand the story more than they would if Ray Bradbury had put in the setting (which he did). What I mean is that the reader wouldn't know where the characters are in the story, if the reader doesn't know where the characters are, the reader wouldn't be able to understand how some factors, from the setting, could affect the decisions/choices of the characters.



           For example, in the real world, the setting a person is in could affect what they do.Let's say a person is lost in the woods, the person finds a cottage in the forest and wonders whether to wander further into the woods or go into the cottage to ask for help. Of course the person wouldn't wander further into the woods because that would put them in more danger. If this person was lost in a unfamiliar neighborhood, this person would of course choose to wander further into the neighborhood instead of breaking into someone's house because this person could ask for directions in a store.



          In conclusion, the setting is very important because 1) It helps the reader visualize, or picture what's going on in the story and 2) the reader wouldn't understand how some factors, from the setting, could affect the decision/choice of a character. So as you can see,the setting is very important because it would help the reader visualize and understand the story more than the reader would if the author, Ray Bradbury, hadn't put in the setting.