Setting is very important in helping the reader picture the story and the characters. Writers use a variety of techniques to bring the setting to life.
Note how Bradbury shows us what the rain is like. From this, the reader gets a vivid image of the rain on Venus.
❍ ‘with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves coming over the islands’
❍ ‘the tatting drum, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests’
2. Hints and clues
Before Bradbury reveals the exact setting of this story, he includes hints and clues that get the reader thinking.
❍ ‘Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it?’ ■ This raises a sense of mystery about the setting. What is happening? Why are there scientists and where could this be?
❍ ‘The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun.’
■ The reader may begin to realise that this is a school setting and that the weather must be bad if they are looking for the ‘hidden sun’.
❍ ‘It had been raining for seven years …’
■ This is a very shocking statement, so the reader now knows that this might be a strange and unusual setting.
