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Power in Literature: Plot

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a la Shmoop.

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We've thought through symbols, settings, and themes.

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so one of the words that

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we've used a couple times is plot

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What is plot?

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Plot is, plain and simple the narrative arc

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of the story it's what happens

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there's a very famous way to map the plot which was called Freytag's Pyramid

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it's that the plot always starts with exposition

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which is the narrator or the author

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kind of setting up the story and getting you ready for what's about to come

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then we move into the rising action and you kind of see the

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pyramid-building like this the rising action is

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you know the plot has begun but it hasn't quite reached the boiling point

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then we get to the top of the pyramid and we're at the climax

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a lot of people think of the climax as

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the most exciting part of the story and often it is, but

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in reality what the climax is is the turning point of the story

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once we reach the climax there's no going back

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then we have the falling action this is where things like kind of start to

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wrap-up a few loose ends get to be tied up

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and then we end up back down at the resolution or the denouement, which is

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basically just the conclusion of the story, sometimes we find out what

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happened to the character

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and sometimes it's ambiguous, but regardless of how a story ends

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there's always that conclusion whether or not we like it or not

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What does a plot look like?

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I'm gonna try to do this for The Veldt which is a Ray Bradbury short story

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one my favorites

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okay so the exposition of that story is it starts with

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the mother kinda of expressing her concern

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to the father about what is happening and we find out a little bit about this world

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she's saying she's worried about the nursery because XY and z.

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and so we're able to see oh, okay

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here's what's happening we're in a dystopian world,

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the kids are playing with lions

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okay we got that that's the exposition then the rising action happened

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as we see the kids kind of playing in the

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African veldt and we see the lions get a little bit feisty

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things start to get a little bit

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concerning the tone of the story is super spooky

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so you know that builds up to

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the climax when the mother and father

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realize something in very very wrong and they bring in

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the psychologist who kind of confirms this and says you have to turn the

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nursery off you have to turn the entire house off

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that's when you know there's a turning point and we realized it's too late

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it's not going back they can't turn the house off

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then the falling action happens when the parents go to try and get the kids out

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and the kids are like, "yeah Mom and Dad, come on in!"

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and the parents you know go on into the into the nursery into the veldt

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and then

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the conclusion is when the psychologist walks into the nursery and

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sees the lions eating something

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which is the parents so you can kind of see the arc of the story

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where it's always

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there some explanation some tension build

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then there's the point of no return and then we get the conclusion of the story

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and this works whether it's a six hundred-page novel

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or like The Veldt which is like three page story

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What is plot?

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What does a plot look like?

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"Run away!"

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