"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Which element does Orwell put in place before any other?

Steinbeck opens Of Mice and Men: "A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green." What does this sentence give the reader first?

Shirley Jackson opens a story that ends in a stoning: "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." What is this setting doing?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton opened Paul Clifford in 1830 with "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents." What does the sentence establish before anything else?

"Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail." Besides the cold, what does Jack London's opening establish?

"Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, / From ancient grudge break to new mutiny." What does this Prologue establish before Act 1 begins?

Poe: "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country." What mood does this create?

"The bus shelter's one light buzzed and went out. Sleet came sideways down the empty road, and the newest timetable on the board was three years old." What mood does this setting create?

"Every screen in the office was still glowing at two in the morning, and the copier kept printing pages nobody had asked for." What mood does this setting create?

"Steam rose off the pancakes, the radio played low, and the dog thumped its tail under the kitchen table." What mood does this setting create?

"The gym was ready for the dance: streamers up, chairs stacked, one door propped open onto the dark parking lot where nobody had walked in for an hour." Which detail does the most to make the mood uneasy?

A story turns on a blizzard that closes the only mountain pass for a week, leaving a family shut in with a stranger. A writer resets it in a suburb in June. What breaks?

A story depends on the narrator overhearing a conversation through the thin wall of a boarding-house room. A writer moves it to a house standing alone on five acres. What breaks?

A novel is set in a farming town during the 1930s drought. A screenwriter moves it to the same town today, with irrigation and crop insurance. Which part of the story is damaged most?

A play is set in a boarding school where two rivals cannot leave the grounds. A director resets it at a day school where everyone goes home at three. What breaks?

A writer moves a story from a crowded apartment block to a lighthouse on an island and changes nothing else. Which part of the story is now impossible?

A novel returns in every chapter to the boarded-up factory at the end of the street, where most of the town used to work. What is the setting doing?

Every time a narrator is about to lie, the story puts her in the same windowless back office. What does the repeated setting suggest about her?

A memoir returns in every family chapter to the same kitchen table: scratched, too small, and always crowded. What is the recurring detail doing?

In a novel about a fishing town, every chapter opens at the tide chart nailed beside the door. Which theme does that repeated detail support?