Why is the setting so important to the story? Give details and examples. barrio boy

Setting is more than simply a geographical location or time period that serves as a backdrop to characters' actions. Fictional settings have many uses:

The places you set your scenes contribute mood and tone (a dark, eerie wood creates a very different sense of danger or mystery compared to a bright, open plain)

Places restrict (or open) possibilities for your characters' lives and actions (a character living in a small mining town might have very different perceptions and options compared to a character who lives in a large city)

Places can evolve and change as your story progresses. You can use their evolution to show the changing circumstances affecting your characters' views and options (for example, in Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, the narrator visits a grand manor he knew in his youth. He finds it crumbling due to the onslaught of the war. This creates melancholic nostalgia. Waugh uses changing physical setting to convey the idea of loss.)