Chapter 2: Plot. Some terms from Perrine's Structure, Sound and Sense. Survey
of Literature ... the purpose of literature is to help us understand life more fully.
Chapter 2: Plot Some terms from Perrine’s Structure, Sound and Sense Survey of Literature
• Plot is defined, simply, as the sequence of events in a story • It’s what most people would say a story is “about.” They’d be wrong, though. The plot is the vehicle the author uses to tell us what the story is about. • All plot requires some conflict--a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or wills
Typical types of conflict: External – person vs. person – person vs. environment (physical, mental, emotional, or moral) Internal – person vs. self – person vs. God
• Plot requires two entities: – protagonist: central figure of the work (not necessarily a “hero” – antagonist: the entity in opposition to the protagonist • “The Most Dangerous Game” features all three types of conflict. Identify them and decide which is central to the story.
• Central to plot is suspense, the “what’s next” factor. • Suspense takes advantage of our natural need to have no loose ends. • This is why we read on, or finish a movie, or listen to the end of a story. • Typically achieved one of two ways: – introduce the reader to some mystery – put the characters in some dilemma
• Suspense is often used for a surprise ending; if it’s not done right, it’s cheap. Ask yourself: – Is it fair and believable? – Does it serve a purpose, or simply serve some cheap emotional need of the reader? • Many stories have unhappy endings. Why are they necessary? Remember, the purpose of literature is to help us understand life more fully.
• Compare the endings of the “The Most Dangerous Game” and “The Veldt.” Do both contain resolutions or are they indeterminate. • indeterminate ending: requires the reader to guess at what happens next, as no definitive conclusion is reached
• Stories must be unified to be complete: – nothing extra or irrelevant – nothing out of order – the flow of the story seems like an inevitable progression of events; given the characters’ situations and choices, it could only have occurred that way. • Stories without unity often suffer from plot manipulation: – deus ex machina: “God from the machine”—from Greek drama.
• Chance and coincidence: both important, but different: – Chance: an accidental occurrence with no logic to it, such as a sober driver being rear-ended by a drunk driver (of course, it’s not chance for the drunk driver) – Coincidence: two simultaneous chance events that have some correspondence (if the sober driver was the father of the drunk driver)
