Providing characters’ observations of a location to establish the setting.
Explanation:
Often, as can easily be corroborated in the work of the greatest novelists, like Balzac, Zola, Tolstoy, or Dostoyevsky, novelists introduce into their narration details of their characters´ setting, often in the characters´ own voice for literary purposes. This, indeed, helps the reader form a mental image —therefore it helps the reader comprehend the narrative a lot better— of the setting of the novel as well as the mindset of the characters, their cultural and social values.