Final answer:
Authors create an integral setting to reflect characters' psychology, enhance mood, and provide insights into social and cultural contexts, while also allowing for a realistic historical framework.
Step-by-step explanation:
An author creates an integral setting instead of a backdrop setting for several key reasons. Firstly, an integral setting is deeply intertwined with the characters and the plot, often reflecting and influencing the psychological landscape of the characters. For example, in "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe, the brooding, oppressive house mirrors the deteriorating minds of the story's characters.
In addition, an integral setting can highlight the story's mood and enhance the reader's emotional experience. The social and cultural context of the setting can explain why characters behave as they do and can reveal deeper themes within the narrative. Authors like Victor Hugo, in "Les Miserables", use historical settings not only as a backdrop but also as a crucial component that characters interact with, thereby shaping the plot's progression and the narrative's meaning.
Moreover, an integral setting can also provide a historically accurate framework for the story, allowing authors to explore themes and pose questions about the era, as seen in works that incorporate real historical events and figures alongside fictional ones.