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Conflict activity
Spend some time thinking about conflicts that you have experienced in your own life skill workshop
and briefly identify a few in each of the following categories:

• Self v. someone else /
• Self v. society (or group larger than an individual)
• Self v. nature
• Self v. self

Then choose one and explain how that conflict was or was not resolved. Essential Elements of Narrative

Setting
Effective narratives immerse the reader in a particular time and place, so that the reader
can feel connected to the writer’s experience. In addition to the physical location of the
narrative (a room, a house, a classroom, a bus), the setting of a narrative also includes
when the events take place (time of day, time of the year, historical time period). This
helps set the mood and atmosphere and helps the reader understand any historical,
cultural, or political issues that the narrative addresses. Look at the beginning of
“Mother’s Tongue”:

As the teenager stepped through the first set of automatic doors at Target, I was entering
from the parking lot. For a few seconds we stood in the foyer area between the sets of
double doors.
“Aren’t you? Aren’t you?” he asked, his lips quivering with joyful anticipation.
In the mid 1990s, the sight of a 6-foot-4 210-pound black man in Salt Lake City caused
many strange reactions.
With just a short description of the time and place of one part of the narrative, Autman
gives the reader a sense of not only the location, but also how out of place he felt. In
Salt Lake City especially, African Americans are in the minority, accounting for less
than 5 percent of the population.

Setting activity
Think back on a recent event that took place at your school, home, neighborhood, or
some other place that you know well. It does not have to be anything significant; it
could be something as mundane as burning toast at breakfast. Focus on describing
just the setting. Where did this event take place? What was the time of day? Write
a few sentences that help someone who has never been there feel immersed in the
setting. Try to offer details that establish a particular mood or atmosphere.

Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 137
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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