The story ‘The snow child’ is set out over a very short period on one day. Although no time is mentioned in the piece, time is also not mentioned passing, so it could be assume that the events in the story happened almost directly after each other. The beginning of the story is effective in bringing in the two major characters in the story, the Count and the Countess. We are given a perspective of them by what they are wearing, for example the ‘glittering pelts of black foxes’ and what they are doing. These two things give the audience a good view of the characters. From it we can depict they are well off, the fact they both ride a horse shows there grandeur. This part of the writing is good as we are not told that the couple are well off and of high society, we are shown in the text. The setting in the beginning of the story is also set very well. We are given a time of year and two powerful adjectives that sum up the time of year very well. ‘Midwinter’ is described as ‘Invincible, Immaculate’. These two describing words help the reader paint a picture in their minds of the layers of white snow that the count and countess ride in. The opening line of the story reflects the style of writing Carter uses at many points during the story. For example when she writes, ‘Midwinter- Invincible, Immaculate’ she uses short sharp descriptive words to portray what is happening, or in this instance, where the characters are. This style is used again when the ‘Snow child’ dies after pricking her finger on a rose. The whole action is described as ‘so she picks up a rose; pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds; screams; falls’. This style of writing helps the text flow quickly, moreover, as so much information is given in this one sentence it seems to suit the short story style, it is very precise.