1. Chapter Two Plot and Structure

2. Plot “the sequence of incidents or events through which an author constructs a story” “not the action itself but the way the author arranges the action toward a specific end” Consider the author’s “significant order”

3. Commercial vs. Literary Commercial fiction: goal is to keep pages turning; uses twists and turns with culminating climactic incident; conventional “tried-and-true” chronological structure Example: “The Most Dangerous Game” with three-part sequence (similar to “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”)

4. Commercial vs. Literary Literary: complex structure may be required to convey complex meanings; “significance of the action is more important than the action itself”; subtle exchanges of words may be as significant as action sequences Example: “Hunters in the Snow” with elements arranged to explore relationships among the three characters (more unexpected and unpredictable with excursions into the three characters’ thought processes)

5. Conflict “a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or wills” may be physical, emotional, or moral man vs. man (or group) man vs. external force (physical nature, society, or fate) man vs. self (something in one’s own nature)

6. Protagonist vs. Antagonist Protagonist: central character (not necessarily hero); sometimes more than one character Antagonist: any force (person, thing, convention of society, or personal traits) that opposes the protagonist Multiple forces may oppose a protagonist at the same time

7. Commercial vs. Literary Commercial Focuses primarily on man vs. man and depends heavily on physical conflict for excitement Tends to define moral absolutes: good guy vs. bad guy Literary Contrasts are less distinct (good vs. good or half-truth vs. half-truth) May question “What is good?” and emphasize internal conflict instead of physical confrontation More like real world where moral issues may have “gray” areas with difficult judgments and complex choices Interest in “various shadings of moral values than with presenting glaring, simplistic contrasts of good and evil, right and wrong” Dudley Do Right and Dastardly Whiplash clip

8. Suspense “the quality in a story that makes readers ask ‘What’s going to happen next?’ or ‘How will this turn out?’ Commercial: may rely on cliffhangers, “whodunits,” and love stories (win the girl? reunite?) Literary: may involve the question “Why?” over “What will happen next?” “Why is the protagonist behaving this way? How is the protagonist’s behavior to explained in terms of human personality and character?”

9. Suspense Mystery: “an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader craves an explanation” Dilemma: “a position in which [the protagonist] must choose between two courses of action, both undesirable”

10. Commercial vs. Literary Suspense Commercial: usually the most important criterion Created artificially through withholding information; “simply to keep [readers] guessing what will happen next, not to reveal some insight into human experience” Is the man going to jump from the ledge? What happens next? Literary: less important than its being “amusing, well written, morally penetrating, peopled by intriguing characters,” etc. “One test of a literary story is to determine whether it creates a desire to read it again… a successful literary story should create an even richer reading experience on the second or third encounter— even though we already know what is going to happen—that on a first reading.” What psychological factors and life experiences led the man to the ledge? Why do things happen as they do? What is the significance of this event?

11. Surprise Linked to suspense Surprise ending: “sudden, unexpected turn or twist” More common in commercial than literary fiction Judge legitimacy and value: 1. “by the fairness with which the surprise is achieved” 2. “by the purpose it serves”

12. Commercial vs. Literary Surprise Commercial: Is it contrived by improbable coincidence, planting of false clues, or arbitrary withholding of information? May be judged as trivial if it happens for its own sake to shock the reader Fraud if it only serves to conceal weaknesses earlier in the story by giving a distraction at the end Literary: The ending “that at first is such a surprise comes to seem, the more we think about it and look back over the story, perfectly logical and natural, we will feel the surprise was achieved fairly.” Justified if it broadens or reinforces the meaning of the story; furnishes “meaningful illumination, not just a reversal of expectation”

13. Commercial vs. Literary Ending Commercial: almost always a happy ending Literary: often ends unhappily Justifications for unhappy ending: realistic; “to reflect and illuminate life, it must acknowledge human defeats as well as triumphs”; recognize that defeats may strengthen or embitter “value in forcing us to ponder the complexities of life”; cause readers to “brood over the outcome, to relive the story in their minds, and by searching out its implications to get much more meaning and significance from it”; more likely to raise significant issues Example: “The Most Dangerous Game” resolves anxieties but “Hunters in the Snow” forces us to think about the mysteries and contradictions of human nature

14. Indeterminate Ending “one in which no definite conclusion is reached” Must have artistic unity without just stopping but need not be a resolved conflict Will they maintain their alliance? What’s the ultimate fate of their friendship? May be more effective if it leaves us to ponder the complex psychological dynamics that operate within human relationships Inception clip

15. Artistic Unity Nothing in the story is irrelevant or there for its own sake or excitement “Good writers exercise rigorous selection.” Include nothing that doesn’t advance central intention Arrange in the most effective order (not necessarily chronological); each event grows out of the preceding and leads logically on; links cause and effect; should have natural inevitability given initial situation and specific characters Plot manipulation: turn unjustified by the situation/characters “deus ex machina” – “god from a machine”

16. Chance and Coincidence Chance: “occurrence of an event that has no apparent cause in previous events or in predisposition of character” Coincidence: “the chance occurrence of two events that may have a peculiar correspondence” Serendipity clip

17. Chance Resolution The story loses its sense of conviction and power to move the reader if the resolution is by chance. “Coincidence may justifiably be used to initiate a story, and occasionally to complicate it, but not to resolve it.” “The improbable initial situation is justified because it offers a chance to observe human nature in conditions that may be particularly revealing, and readers of literary fiction should demand only that the author develop a story logically from that initial situation. But the writer who uses similar coincidence to resolve a story is imposing an unlikely pattern on human experience rather than revealing any human truth.”

18. Plot Tracing development of rising action, climax, and falling action if concerned only with plot does not take readers far into the story Consider “the function of the plot in trying to understand the relationship of each incident to the larger meaning of the story” Literary: “plot is important for what it reveals”; examine the way incidents are connected to test the story’s plausibility and unity; plot is inextricable from characterization, point of view, etc.