The setting of a story can dramatically change the plot and character development. For example, let's take two short tales, "The Old Man of the Temple" by RK Narayan and "The Man Who Sends Rain Clouds" by These two stories have strong cultural settings and characters influenced by their environments. Setting influences characters and events in the story by changing how characters handle situations, changing the cultural understanding of characters, and different settings can change a character's voice. The setting impacts how the characters deal with adversity. When the boy in "The Man Who Sends Rain Clouds" asks for holy water, the priest refuses. “You know I can’t do that, Leon. There should have been at least the last rites and a funeral mass. After brief minutes of debate, the boy decides that the holy water is not important. The fact that he lived in a village with many other Native Americans influenced this decision. Had he lived in a large city, the priest might have been asked to pour holy water on the grave and perform Catholic rites. The setting changes how characters can deal with problems, as characters are directly affected by the setting. Each character's behavior is tied to the setting of the story, people act the way they do based on where they were raised. Thus, to create a realistic tale, you must have a solid setting in which a character is firmly anchored. Another example of this is the man from the “Old Man of the Temple”. He grew up in a modern Middle East. When confronted with change, his first reaction was what the context would entail. Because the man was modern, he immediately assumed Doss was either crazy or drunk. "What do you have,... in the middle of a sheet of paper..." If the story had taken place in ancient times, the character's actions and thoughts would have been affected. The Native Americans would not have had all the modern devices and would probably have brought the dead man back to camp in a travois. There would be no priest and the children would instead have asked an elder to pour water on the grave. The setting influences the character's voice. In all tales, characters and plots can be changed. Setting influences characters and events in the story by changing how characters handle situations, changing the cultural understanding of characters, and different settings can change a character's voice. In both stories discussed, changing the setting could have a huge impact on plot and character development.