Name:___________________________
Setting and Mood in ‘The Veldt’
Meets Standard
You clearly state your
argument. The direct
quotations you use all
show evidence of your
argument. In the
paragraph you write, you
use complete sentences
and include all the
quotations from 1, 2 and 3
to back up your argument.
Close to Standard
The direct quotations you
use all show evidence of
your argument. In the
paragraph you write, you
use mostly complete
sentences and include all
the quotations from 1, 2
and 3 to back up your
argument.
Below Standard
The direct quotations you
use all show evidence of
your argument. In the
paragraph you write, you
use mostly complete
sentences and include
some of the direct
quotations from 1, 2 and 3
to back up your argument.
Far Below Standard
You didn’t use direct
quotations, or you didn’t
finish the paragraph
portion of this assignment.
Example paragraph from ‘Max at Sea’ (What you'll do for #5 below):
In the short story ‘Max at Sea,’ the island Max finds himself on with the wild things creates a mood of
dream like chaos for the reader. One of the most significant details about the island that works to create the
mood of dream like chaos is the initial description of the landscape as, “… familiar—there were trees, there
was dirt, there were rocks—but then very odd: the earth seemed to be striped in brown and yellow, like
peanut butter and cinnamon at the first twirl of a mixing spoon.” While the time, in terms of the year or
date, wasn’t super important, the time of day was. The story describes how, when Max arrived on the
island, “it was night and the island had gone black… [a fire made an] orange glow between the trees,”
revealing the time of day to be night, which is the most common time to have a dream. The chaotic social
conditions were revealed as soon as Max arrived at the camp of the wild things, where, “They [the wild
things] were systematically wrecking…[their nests]…like kids destroying sandcastles.”
1. [Write] Place: Where did the story take place?
a. [Write] Find one direct quotation that reveals the most important detail(s) about where the story took
place. Write it here:
2. [Write] Time: When do you think the story took place (approximately, if necessary)?:
a. [Write] Write down one direct quotation that either states directly when the story took place or led you
to an inference of when the story took place:
3. [Write] Social Conditions: What was considered normal by the characters in the story? Write down one direct
quotation that shows an important example of social conditions in the story:
4. [Write] Mood: Combining Place + Time + Social Conditions, what mood (overall feeling for you as a reader) did
the story have?
5. [Write] Write out a complete paragraph where you argue what the mood was. Include all three pieces of text
evidence above in your paragraph as you explain how the place, time and social conditions all created a mood in
the story. (Example paragraph at the top of this page.)