Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Like a Grade 10 Critic: Literature, Information and ShakespeareAnalysing Texts: How Setting, Figurative Language and Structure Build Theme
1.6About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can tell the difference between a topic and a theme statement.
- I can explain how setting helps clarify a story's theme.
- I can explain how figures of speech highlight a theme and create mood.
- I can write an analytical paragraph about how a text's parts work together.
Words to know
analyse
To examine the parts of a text and explain how they work together to create meaning.
theme
A complete statement about life or people that a text explores.
setting
The time, place and conditions in which a story happens.
mood
The feeling a text creates in the reader.
tone
The writer's or narrator's attitude toward the subject.
figure of speech
An expression that uses words in a non-literal way, such as a simile or metaphor.
simile
A comparison using like or as.
metaphor
A comparison that says one thing is another.
Hook: same story, different weather
Imagine a movie scene where two people make up after a fight. Now set it on a sunny beach. Now set it in a hospital waiting room at 3 a.m. Same words, totally different feeling. Setting, word choice and structure aren't decoration. They are how a writer builds mood and theme.
Remember from Grade 9
In Grade 9 you studied elements of style and literary devices such as allusion, juxtaposition and flashback. This year you analyse: you explain how several parts of a text work together to develop its ideas, issues or themes.
What does analysing mean?
To analyse a text is to take it apart to see how it works. The curriculum asks you to analyse texts in terms of the information, ideas, issues or themes they explore, and to examine how various aspects of the text contribute to them.
Theme vs topic:
- A topic is one or two words: family, loneliness.
- A theme is a complete statement about life: Hardship can strip away distractions and bring people back together.
Good theme statements are general (no character names), arguable and not clichés (avoid Never give up!).
Mood is the feeling the text creates in the reader (tense, cozy, eerie). Tone is the writer's or narrator's attitude (bitter, playful, admiring).
Story A: Glass Branches
(A very short story written for this website.)
The ice storm had wrapped every branch on Maple Crescent in glass. At 7:12 p.m., with a crack like a snapping hockey stick somewhere down the street, the power went out.
The Haddad family had not been in the same room for weeks. Dad worked nights. Samira lived in her headphones. Her brother Karim gamed in the basement with the door shut. Now their screens were dying one by one, small blue lights going out like candles.
The house ticked and groaned like an old ship. By nine, all four of them were in the living room, wrapped in blankets around the woodstove, the only heartbeat left in the house.
"Remember the last ice storm?" Mom asked. "You two built a fort out of couch cushions."
"I was the architect," Karim said.
"You were the problem," Samira said, and to her surprise, everyone laughed.
Outside, branches snapped and fell all night. Inside, nobody noticed. When the lights flickered back on at dawn, Samira reached over and switched off the lamp.
Story B: Rush Hour
(A very short story written for this website.)
The subway car was a sea of grey coats. Daniel stood pressed between a stranger's backpack and a pole that was warm from a hundred hands. Three weeks in the city and he had spoken to no one except a cashier.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on their phones. The train swallowed people at every stop and spat them out at the next, and none of them looked up.
At Bloor, the doors opened and the crowd surged. His toque slid off his head and disappeared under the boots.
He didn't bother looking. It was just a toque.
But at the next stop, an older woman in a purple scarf tapped his elbow. She held out the toque, a little flattened.
"It's too cold to lose this," she said. "Welcome to Toronto, eh?"
"How did you know I'm new?"
She smiled. "Nobody who's been here a year lets go of their toque."
The doors closed. For the first time in three weeks, Daniel looked up.
Worked exampleLet's analyse how setting clarifies theme
Determine how the setting in each story helps clarify that story's theme. Include one figure of speech from each.
- Glass Branches, setting: an ice storm and a power outage. The storm takes away screens and separate rooms, forcing the family into one room around the woodstove. Theme: When distractions are stripped away, families can rediscover their connection.
- Figure of speech (A): the woodstove is the only heartbeat left in the house (metaphor). It makes the stove the living centre of the family, highlighting the theme of warmth and connection. The simile like an old ship creates an eerie, isolated mood at first.
- Rush Hour, setting: a crowded subway. Hundreds of people surround Daniel, yet he is alone. Theme: A person can feel lonely in a crowd, but a small act of kindness can break that isolation.
- Figure of speech (B): a sea of grey coats (metaphor). People become a faceless, colourless mass, creating a cold, anonymous mood. Then a woman in a purple scarf stands out from the grey: the colour marks the moment kindness appears.
- Compare: in A, an empty, dark setting brings people together; in B, a full, busy setting keeps them apart. Each setting is chosen to make its theme clear.
A: the storm removes distractions and forces closeness (theme: connection returns when distractions disappear). B: the crowded subway isolates (theme: loneliness in a crowd can be broken by kindness).
The mood of Glass Branches starts cold and distant, gets tenser when the power fails, then warms as the family gathers by the stove. Plotting mood at key moments helps you see how structure supports the theme.Worked exampleLet's write an analytical paragraph
Write a paragraph analysing how the ending of Glass Branches contributes to its theme.
- Point: the final action sums up the theme.
- Evidence: When the lights flickered back on at dawn, Samira reached over and switched off the lamp.
- Analysis: electricity brought back the screens that kept the family apart. By choosing to switch off the lamp, Samira chooses to keep the closeness the storm created. Ending on an action rather than an explanation lets readers infer the change.
- Link to theme: the ending shows that connection is a choice, not just an accident of bad weather.
The story's final image completes its theme. When the power returns, Samira 'reached over and switched off the lamp,' choosing darkness over the screens that had divided the family. Because the story ends on an action instead of an explanation, readers infer that she wants to hold on to the closeness the storm created. The ending suggests that connection, once rediscovered, is something people must choose to keep.
Just for funFunny-but-true: Edgar Allan Poe argued in 1842 that a short story should be short enough to read in one sitting, so every word works toward a single effect. He did not say anything about phone breaks.
Hands-on activityChange the weather
You need: a notebook, and a scene from any book, show or your own life.
- Choose Glass Branches or Rush Hour. Rewrite the first two sentences with a completely different setting (for example, a sunny July afternoon at a cottage, or an empty subway car at 2 a.m.).
- Read both versions aloud to a family member. Ask them which mood each creates.
- Write three sentences explaining how changing the setting changes the theme, or makes the original theme harder to show.
- List two figures of speech you used and the mood each creates.
What to look for: a clear mood shift, and an explanation that links setting to theme (for example, an empty subway removes the lonely in a crowd idea).
Your turn
1What is the difference between a topic and a theme?
A topic is a word or phrase (family). A theme is a complete statement about life (Hardship can bring families back together).
2Name the figure of speech in The house ticked and groaned like an old ship and explain its mood.
A simile (like). It creates an eerie, isolated mood, as if the house is adrift in the storm.
3How does the setting of Rush Hour help create the theme?
The crowded subway surrounds Daniel with people who don't look up, showing loneliness in a crowd; that makes the woman's kindness stand out.
4Why might the writer have given the woman a purple scarf?
It contrasts with the sea of grey coats, making her stand out as the moment of warmth and kindness.
5What is the difference between mood and tone?
Mood is the feeling created in the reader; tone is the writer's or narrator's attitude.
6Write a theme statement for Rush Hour that avoids names and clichés.
Sample: Even in a crowded city, a small act of kindness can make a stranger feel that they belong.
More practice: warm-up
1What is the setting of Glass Branches?
An ice storm and power outage in a family's house on Maple Crescent, at night.
2Which word describes the feeling a text creates in the reader?
3Find a metaphor in Rush Hour.
The subway car was a sea of grey coats (also: the train swallowed people).
4At what time of day does Glass Branches end?
More practice: on your own
1Explain how their screens were dying one by one, small blue lights going out like candles contributes to the theme.
The simile connects screens to candles going out, marking the end of distractions; once they are gone, the family turns to each other. It also deepens the darkening, quiet mood.
2How does the structure of Rush Hour (silence, then a short conversation, then Daniel looked up) support the theme?
Most of the story shows isolation with no dialogue. The single conversation is the turning point, and the final line shows the change. The structure itself moves from loneliness to connection.
3Analyse the line Nobody who's been here a year lets go of their toque.
It's humour about Canadian winters, but it also welcomes Daniel by sharing an insider's joke, suggesting he will belong too.
4Is the theme of Never give up! a strong theme statement? Explain.
No. It is a cliché, it is a command rather than a statement about life, and it doesn't fit either story's specific ideas.
5Give one difference between how the two settings work.
In A, an empty, dark setting pushes people together; in B, a full, busy setting keeps people apart until kindness intervenes.
Challenge
1Write an analytical paragraph showing how two aspects of Rush Hour (for example setting and figurative language) work together to develop its theme.
Sample: In 'Rush Hour', setting and metaphor combine to show loneliness in a crowd. The packed subway places Daniel among 'a sea of grey coats', a metaphor that turns people into a faceless mass. The train 'swallowed people at every stop and spat them out', which makes the city feel like a machine rather than a community. Against this grey, impersonal setting, the woman in a 'purple scarf' stands out, so her kindness feels bright and surprising. Together, setting and imagery suggest that a single human connection can break through big-city isolation.
2Argue which story uses setting more effectively to develop theme. Use evidence from both.
Either answer can be strong if supported. Sample for A: the storm causes the plot (no outage, no reunion), so setting and theme are inseparable; the final image of switching off the lamp ties setting directly to theme. Sample for B: the crowd is both the problem and the place where kindness happens, a richer contrast. Look for evidence from both stories and a clear standard (for example how necessary the setting is to the theme).
3Write a 100-word scene where the same setting (a school cafeteria) creates two opposite moods in two paragraphs. Then explain the techniques you used.
Look for: paragraph 1 using words that create one mood (for example noisy, sticky, crowded, glaring lights) and paragraph 2 an opposite mood (for example warm, laughter, sunlight on the tables), with an explanation naming word choice, figurative language and sensory details as the techniques.
Quiz
1. Which is a theme statement?
2. The woodstove was the only heartbeat left in the house is an example of...
3. In Glass Branches, the storm mainly helps the theme by...
5. Why does Samira switch off the lamp at the end?
6. To analyse a text means...
What this lesson teaches: ENG2D Reading 1.6: analysing texts in terms of the ideas, issues or themes they explore, and how aspects of the text (setting, figurative language, structure) contribute. The examples follow the curriculum's own examples: figures of speech that highlight theme and create mood, and how setting in two short stories clarifies each theme.
How to help at home:
- Watch a scene from a show with the sound off and ask how the setting and lighting create mood.
- Ask your teen to turn a topic into a theme statement: family to Families ...
- When they say it creates a mood, ask which mood, and how.
Common difficulties:
- Retelling instead of analysing. Analysis answers how and why, not what happened.
- One-word themes. Insist on a full sentence.
- Vague effect words. It makes it interesting says nothing; push for a precise mood or idea.
Facts used: Edgar Allan Poe's idea that a short story should be read in a single sitting to create a single effect comes from his 1842 review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's tales. Both stories were written for this website.