In a novel or book, the setting can have a major effect on the character. It can also play a role in a major conflict of a story. In the book, "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park, the setting, being a desert, takes effect in influencing characters, plot, and mood throughout the story.
Firstly, the setting of this novel causes Nya to experience many feelings and emotion such as pain, sorrow, and grief. These feelings accrue throughout her journey back and forth from the village to the pond through the excruciating terrain. While Nya is contemplating about going to get Walter, “It would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way. Heat. Time. And thorns”(Park 1). Because of the location of the water, it controls where Nya lives. This happens since she has to move whenever the pond dries up. If they did not move, they could no longer get enough water to provide for their family. This also affects what role Nya plays in her family and what role she’ll play in life.
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It makes Salva completely change the way he lives, where he lives, and what he lives for. As Salva reflects about the government, “He knew that the rebels from the southern part of Sudan, where he and his family lived, were fighting against the government which was based in the North”(Part 6). Due to there being an outbreak of violence and war in the setting Salva lives he is forced to run away from his family and leave his old life behind and start a new one. This helps the plot move along because now he is alone and has no one by his side. No Salva will have to make many more significant and life threatening decisions than he ever thought he would