The setting of a short story includes time, place, cultural aspects, and characterization. true or false?

It is false that the setting of a short story includes time, place, cultural aspects, and characterization. Although the first part of the sentence is indeed correct, the last word is not - characterization has nothing to do with the setting. The setting is a character's surroundings - so the time the story is taking place in, the place, and all of the cultural aspects that the time and the place entail. The way characters are described doesn't have much to do with the setting.

As the boys sleep, military airplanes battle fiercely above the island. none of the boys sees the explosions and flashes in the clouds because the twins sam and eric, who were supposed to watch the signal fire, have fallen asleep. during the battle, a parachutist drifts down from the sky onto the island, dead.