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Social Studies 5: Time Periods are Important 25 Views
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Description:
Time periods are super important. What if The Lord of the Rings had taken place in the future? Frodo would have just used his rocket boots to fly straight over to Mt. Doom, you know just like he could have used the great eagles to...oh. Well then. Bad example.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino signing]
- 00:13
When we think about the setting of a work of fiction, [girl reading a fiction book]
- 00:16
we often get caught up in the question of where it's taking place.
- 00:18
Is the main character in a city? In the country? On the moon?
- 00:22
And, sure, the where is definitely important, but so is the when: in what time period is
Full Transcript
- 00:27
the work taking place?
- 00:29
We all know where Harry Potter happens –and if you don't, you should pause this video [Man sitting at a table]
- 00:33
and read all seven books…we'll wait… [clock ticks]
- 00:37
Good? Okay, so we all know it takes place at Hogwarts.
- 00:41
But when does the story take place?
- 00:43
Anybody?
- 00:44
That’s what we thought. We kind of already intuitively know how important
- 00:47
time periods are in fiction. A lot of stories only really make sense [Caveman and darth vader in a field]
- 00:51
in the time period they take place.
- 00:53
The Little House in the Prairie series is set in the late nineteenth century, so a lot
- 00:56
of stories deal with what it was like living in the American Midwest in that period, with [Farm animals walking around]
- 01:00
all the farming and work duties of the time.
- 01:02
Heh. Duties.
- 01:03
But if the same series were set in the present, things would be a lot different. [Family driving a car]
- 01:07
Let’s just say that they’d be a lot more concerned with charging their phones than chopping wood.
- 01:11
Just think about all the things that a time period can affect….
- 01:14
The place: Paris in 1918 is way different from Paris in 1789, or Paris right now. [Eiffel Tower with an islamic flag]
- 01:20
Technology: not too many laptops in biblical epics, are there?
- 01:24
Language: words, phrases, and slang change over time. Believe it or not, you're not going
- 01:27
to find the phrase "on fleek" in Jane Austen. [Jane Austen in a field]
- 01:30
Social relations: the status of women in western society has changed so much throughout history,
- 01:35
so depending on when a piece of fiction is set, the pressures and expectations that female [Woman protesting for equal pay]
- 01:39
characters experience will be very different.
- 01:41
These are just a few examples of the kinds of things that drive some pretty good stories.
- 01:45
All in all, whether a work of fiction is set in the past, the present, or the future, the
- 01:49
time period in which it takes place will definitely be important.
- 01:52
And for the record, Harry Potter is set in the 90s. [Man dressed in wizard robes]
- 01:54
Yep, Harry was probably listening to the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. [Harry listening to Britney Spears and Spice Girls]
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