Characterization refers to the methods used by the author to create or reveal the characters in a story. The characters are the humans, animals, or fantasized beings who are created by the author to act within a story for the author's purposes. In some instances, such as in historical fiction, there may be real human beings who lived during the time period of the story. A good writer creates characters that the reader cares about. The reader may love them or hate them, respect them, or hold contempt for them, but the writer has created and evoked those emotions by the selection of details provided about the characters.
Most stories have multiple settings which have been created by the author to tell the story.
In teaching children and students to think about setting, it is also useful to have them consider how the nature of the events changes with the settings. The kinds of events that take place in a local store are usually different from the kinds of events that occur in a school classroom. Theme is the central unifying element of the story which ties together all of the other elements of fiction used by the author to tell the story. It indicates the pivotal ideas around which the author was writing. In order to identify a theme of a story, one must know the whole story.