Falling In Love Setting

Where Are You Who You Are? Investigation of setting’s revelation of character in the works of Falling in Love by
Sandra Birdsell and A Scarf by Carol Fields

Katelyn Lobzun
329452171
Due date: 11­17­14
Word Count: 1343

Settings used throughout stories are often meant to portray a deeper meaning of the story, character(s), or conflict, as opposed to merely serving as passive backdrops. Within the stories Falling in Love by Sandra Birdsell and A Scarf by Carol Shields, there are first­person reflections about the main characters’ journeys at certain points in their lives. Lureen from
Falling in Love has been abandoned by her boyfriend and is on her way back to her childhood
home, while Reta Winters from A Scarf has written a book and is now on a book tour to New
York, Washington, and Baltimore. On both excursions, the authors use imaginative setting to reveal a more profound characterization of their protagonists by reflecting their current situations in life and their mental states.
Most of the significant settings throughout the stories contrast each other, however reveal the same aspect of the characters. One example of a setting where this occurs is where the characters reside at, at one point in their lives. In Falling in Love, Lureen lives in a three bedroom apartment that is situated above a butcher shop. It is described having a
“caved in ceiling” (Birdsell 370), which can demonstrate the limited and confined life that
Lureen is allowing herself to live. Also, “sawdust and shavings ankle­deep on the floor, ceiling slats dangling free” (Birdsell 370) show the very messy, carelessness, and immobility of her character. Lastly, a “lone light bulb suspended by a single twined wire” (Birdsell 370) shows
Lureen’s last little bit of enlightening alteration that can occur in her life. These descriptions ultimately impose a visual image to be obtained by the reader as very disordered and unorganized. The way Lureen describes her life at the moment allows the reader to make a parallel between her apartment and herself. She describes her life as “between jobs, waiting for the world to end” (Birdsell 372) and “[she] left school…” (Birdsell 370). The broken,
untidy apartment shows Lureen’s disorganized life, and how her life needs restoration.
As opposed to Lureen, while Reta is on her book tour, she stays in a very extravagant hotel. She depicts every detail, saying “a bedroom, two full baths, a very wide bed, and more sofas than I would have time to sit on in my short stay” (Shields 391), which reflects upon her wealthy and privileged life. This contrasts the way Lureen’s apartment looks and therefore their lives.

Then, Reta says “and a coffee table consisting of a sheet of glass posed on three immense faux books” (Shields 391). This aspect of the hotel reveals her character’s life as very definite and it has a clear path, being that the glass is transparent. Seeing as Lureen’s apartment was messy, these settings differ in the sense of clarity, thus showing to the reader the differences between the clarity of these characters’ lives. Overall, this explanation causes the reader to obtain a visual image that shows wealth and lavish organization. The hotel reveals Reta’s situation in life, which she is currently moving in a positive direction. This is proved when she explains that her book is selling with “sparky sales” (Shields 389), and she is fairly well off
as she reacts to the price of the scarf being sixty dollars saying “was that all?” (Shields 394).
Also, her family with “three handsome daughters” (Shields 390) and “married to a family physician” (Shields 390) shows the emotional and financial stability Reta obtains in her life.
This parallels to the hotel as it is organised, pristine, and elegant. Although the settings contrast, and therefore show a contrast of character, both settings reveal difficult against simple life situations of the protagonists, and place an emphasis on how the readers should assess their development and future. The essence of this particular comparison shows that in spite of setting portraying a background view or having the use of affecting the characters, authors often utilize setting to illuminate a character(s) on a deeper level, revealing characteristics not otherwise shown, such as their positions in their lives. Not only does the setting of where the protagonists reside at at one point in the story illustrate their current life situations, but their mental states are revealed through the settings of the roads they walk upon, and the roads’ surroundings. When Lureen chooses to get off of the bus, she encounters a road that she refers to as a “dead end” (Birdsell 372). The significance of this observation is that, as the road symbolizes her state of mind, she is aware of her hindered life path and her confined mentality. When she analyses the landscape, she describes it as obtaining a “flat cloudless sky” (Birdsell 372) that has “no perspective” (Birdsell
372). This explanation is significant as it reveals the minimal direction and control of her thoughts and decisions. She also describes that she is “stopped by the reality of a churned up landscape” (Birdsell 369). This statement is critical when comparing the setting to Lureen’s mental state as it reveals to the reader the introduction of her hopeful revelation achieved by the end of the story. The use of the words “stopped by reality” (Birdsell 369) show that Lureen is now coming to the realization that she desperately needs to fix the track of her mind in order to repair her life. The road is uneven, messy, and obtains no direction without obstacles,

displaying Lureen’s complicated and unsteady mind. Similar to Lureen, on her excursion to find the perfect scarf for her daughter, Reta travels upon a street composed of many houses, stores, and boutiques. The explanation of the scene allows the reader to envision a clean, compact, and aligned street that obtains features of elegance and organization. Reta describes her surroundings as “impeccably gentrified” (Fields 393), revealing that Reta’s mind state has been flawlessly restored, possibly due to her new selling book or her current task of finding her daughter’s scarf. This state contrasts Lureen’s mind as she is very out of order, and has not received a positive life­revelation yet. Also, she describes the flower pots’ placements as being ”ardently pursued” (Fields 393), and uses diction such as “enchanting”,
“caring”, and “solemn” (Fields 393) to describe the scenery. In relation to the setting of the road and landscape revealing Reta’s state of mind, these descriptions demonstrate how intricate but coordinated her thoughts and mind are, as opposed to Lureen’s. Lureen’s thoughts and mental state are not as arranged and pristine as Reta’s are, showing their contrast of character. In general, the settings of the road Lureen walks upon in Falling in Love and the street of boutiques and houses that Reta observes from the story A Scarf differ, yet share the same aspect of comparison within their protagonists; they display the characters’ mentality at a particular point within their lives. The significance of this disclosure is that the reader can acquire a more abstract understanding of the characters, and their role within the story as a whole. Sandra Birdsell and Carol Shields have written two short stories in which examine two dissimilar environments where their protagonists narrate their previous adventures. The main character from Falling in Love, Lureen, and the main character from A Scarf, Reta Winters, demonstrate contrasting characters and opposite walks of life. In spite of these differing paths, the settings prove to reveal a parallel between both characters. Furthermore, aside from their character variations, distinct parallels on their paths allow the reader to understand them better and form connections between the stories and characters.

Works Cited
-Birdsell, Sandra. “Falling in Love” The Penguin Book of Short Stories. Ed. Jane
Urqhart. Toronto Penguin Group, 2008 (369-379)

-Shields, Carol. “A Scarf” The Penguin Book of Short Stories. Ed. Jane Urqhart.
Toronto Penguin Group, 2008 (389-398)

-Urqhart, Jane, ed. The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, Toronto:
Penguin Group, 2008.