ME 2-4: Menu Entree - Due November 15th - Setting Description

Menu Entrée 4 – Setting Description – Due Thursday, November 15^th

Write a 100-200 word description of a setting of your choice using one or more of the tools listed below. 

1. Think of someplace or remember someplace you have spent considerable time.

2. Next decide what you want to say about the setting and tell about it the setting using adjectives.

3. Now use each of the following devices to show rather than tell about the setting. 

a. Simile, metaphor, or personification

b. Dialogue

c. Tell about a common, simple event that might happen there.

            d. Imagery

Example:

1. Laguna Beach in the off-season
2. Warm sun, light breeze, quiet, peaceful, not very many people.
3.  
1. Simile, Metaphor, Personification: The sun was a soft light, warming the sand.  The breeze played with my hair, brushing it occasionally across my face.  The beach was like an enchanted, deserted island, with nothing to interrupt the peace.
2. Dialogue:  “You know, we could be doing homework right now,” she laughed.  “Yeah,” her brother said, “and chores.”  “Instead here we sit with no one to bother us or tell us what to do.”  “I think we should say we’re never coming back.  I like the idea of spending the rest of my life just watching the seagulls run away from the waves.” 
3. A Simple Event:  They sat there barefoot in their beach chairs watching the sunlight on the waves, when a woman far down the beach walked slowly, wading in the very edge of the water.  She stopped every few yards to face the big ocean in some kind of meditation, arms outstretched, a sandal in each hand, bringing the peace and strength of the ocean into her soul.  It was like she was washing away all of the stresses of the day and replacing it with the warmth and quietness of the beach.     OR       There, where the sand met the water, was a lone, red plastic bucket, filled with a sludgy, sandy mixture that kept it from washing out into the ocean.  Next to it were the remains of a child’s sand castle, but there were no children in sight today.  The seagulls ran up and down the shoreline, unbothered, looking for sand crabs and the only other noise was the quiet lapping of the waves as they came and went.
4. Imagery: There was that misty salty flavor in the air and a teasing breeze played with the edges of my book as I sat half reading, half meditating on the vastness of the water in front of me.  The seagulls were kind enough not to interrupt my solitude with their games and I wiggled my toes deeper into the cool sand.  It was like a big calming breath of fresh air wrapped up in a little package for me to drink in.  Occasionally a jogger would come steadily down the beach and slowly disappear into the distance, but they were just part of the scenery – not really registering in the atmosphere that was calming me breath by breath, like one big wave washing over me.