You can start with the idea that Geography is setting and that setting greatly influences both plot and mood. Foster challenges us to go farther.
I love the following quote from this Chapter (19):
"Literary Geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit human" (165-166).
Therefore, geography is the setting of the story, but it is also about how that setting has influenced the development of characters. Foster writes, "geography can be setting, but it's also (or can be) psychology, attitude, finance, industry--anything that place can forge in the people who live there" (166).
Apparently, going south allows a character to "run amok." High peaks can be stark and inhuman, but also cold and cleansing.
As for season, spring means youth and renewal; summer is a season of adulthood, of love; autumn often signifies middle age; winter is old age and death...And that is just the human life! Harvests have their own significance. For example, they could mean the harvest of our lifetime endeavors.
Remember, Irony trumps everything.
What can you say about the use of geography or season in what you are reading?
Work and Author
Geography and/ or Season
Significance
An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
The Forest
The forest symbolizes Peyton's freedom from the Creek, and that he has escaped what seems like inevitable death due to the soldiers trying to hang and shoot him. The forest represents an escape, a chance of life, and a passage to his haven. if he could make it to the forest, he could make it home, if he could make it home, he would free his soul.
I love the following quote from this Chapter (19):
"Literary Geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit human" (165-166).
Therefore, geography is the setting of the story, but it is also about how that setting has influenced the development of characters. Foster writes, "geography can be setting, but it's also (or can be) psychology, attitude, finance, industry--anything that place can forge in the people who live there" (166).
Apparently, going south allows a character to "run amok." High peaks can be stark and inhuman, but also cold and cleansing.
As for season, spring means youth and renewal; summer is a season of adulthood, of love; autumn often signifies middle age; winter is old age and death...And that is just the human life! Harvests have their own significance. For example, they could mean the harvest of our lifetime endeavors.
Remember, Irony trumps everything.
What can you say about the use of geography or season in what you are reading?