plot and structure

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Chapter two

• Plot and Structure

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Plot

• The sequence of incidents or events through which
  an author construct a story.
• (skilled author are careful to present the
  sequence in a significant order)
• Relationship
• Plot to story (detail lesser/greater)
• Map to journey (scale finer/grosser)

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Plot summary

• Includes
• What characters say
• What characters think
• What characters do
• Leaves out
• Description
• Analysis
• Concentrate on major event

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Contrast of plot and content of story

• Plot of story, the way the authors arrange the
  action toward a specific end
• Content of story contains its event and action

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PLOT

• Literary fiction

• Commercial fiction (which its goal is to keep
  the reader turning the pages)

• Contain
• Many surprising twists and turns
• Culminating
• Climactic incident
• Tried and true, fairly conventional structure in
  arranging plot elements

• Need complex structure because it needs to convey
  complex meaning

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Some story follow a standard chronology for their
plot or employ familiar structural pattern

• Hunter In the snow
• Chronological structure
• Complex way to explore the relationship between
  its characters
• More experimental
• Unpredictable
• Taking unexpected excursion into the thought
  process of characters
• The most dangerous game
• Chronological structure
• Familiar structural pattern

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The surface excitement in a story produce and
arise by(in both commercial and literary
fiction)

• Some sort of conflict
• ( a clash of actions, ideas, desires or wills)
• Conflict may be between
• Person against person
• Person against environment
• Person against himself or herself
• Different kind of conflict
• 1-physical example in wrestling match
• 2-mental example in a chess game
• 3-emotional example a person sitting in a silent
  room
• 4-moral example lying or honesty

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Protagonist

• In every conflict the central character, whether
  sympathetic or unsympathetic as a person.(maybe
  we have more than one protagonist in a story)
• Contrast of hero/heroine by protagonist
• Hero/heroine means that central character has
  heroic qualities , for example do unbelievable
  thing
• Protagonist simply means the central character
  so it s less ambiguous.

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Antagonist

• Any force arranged against the protagonist
  whether
• persons,
• things
• conventions of society
• the protagonists own character traits

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Conflict in ( a clash of actions, ideas,
desires or wills)

• Literary fiction

• Commercial fiction

• Utilize all four kinds of conflict
• Is More mentally complicated
• Good opposed to good
• Half truth opposed to half truth
• Internal conflict rather than physical
  confrontation is used

• Emphasizes only the confrontation between man
  and man
• Physical conflict
• Its moral absolute
• Good guy versus bad guy

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suspense

• Its a quality in a story that makes readers ask
• What is going to happen next?
• How will this turn out
• It compels reader to keep reading
• It increases by mixing curiosity with anxiety
  about the fate of a likable sympathetic character
• Example
• In love story does the boy win the girl?
• In whodunits who committed the murder
• In cliffhanger the hero tied to railroad or
  hanging on the edge of a cliff

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Two device that the writer use to create suspense

• 1- Introduce an element of mystery
• 2- Placing the protagonist in a dilemma

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SUSPENSE

• COMMERCIAL FICTION

• LITERARY FICTION

• The most important criterion for keeping the
  reader continue it
• It is sometimes artificially, just withholding
  some information

• Is less important for engaging the readers
  interest but it must be
• Amusing
• Well written
• Morally penetrating
• Peopled by intriguing characters
• Creating a desire to read it again

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Contrast of

• suspense

• surprise

• If we dont know ahead of time exactly what is
  going to happen and why , we experience suspense.

• As long as we dont know whatever happens comes
  with an element of surprise
• Its proportional to the unexpectedness of what
  happens
• When the story depart radically from our
  expectation
• In short story such radical departure is a
  surprise ending
• In commercial fiction tends to have more surprise
  ending

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Ways for judging the legitimacy and value of a
surprise ending

• 1- by the fairness with which the surprise is
  achieved
• 2-by the purpose that it serves

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1-by the fairness with which the surprise is
achieved

• Cheap trick or fraud

• Fairly achieved

• By an improbable coincidence
• By planting of false clues to mislead reader
• Arbitrary withholding of information
• If it be just for its own sake

• Its ending at first is such a surprise , the more
  we think about it , its perfectly logical and
  natural

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Surprise ending

• In literary fiction

• In commercial fiction

• The surprise is the one that furnishes meaningful
  illumination , not just a reversal of expectation
• It often not always ends happily , so it is label
  depressing stories

• It almost always has a happy ending, for example
• The protagonist must solve her problem
• Defeat an adversary
• Win her man
• Live happily ever after

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Two justification for unhappy ending in literary
fiction

• To be Liked real life

• To ponder the complexities of life

• Many situation in real life do have unpleasant
  outcomes. If fiction is to reflect and illuminate
  life it must acknowledge human defeats

• The story with happy ending has been wrapped up
  for us and it requires no further thought
• The unhappy ending cause to relive the story in
  mind to get more meaning , judge individual
  better when we see how the behave in times of
  trouble
• Shakespeare's tragedies reverberate in mind more
  than his comedies

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Ending

• The most dangerous game

• Hunters in the snow

• Happy ending
• Resolved all our anxiety

• Unhappy ending
• Force us to think about the mysteries and
  contradictions of human nature

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Evaluating the literary fiction ending

• (its not important that its happy or unhappy
  ending)
• By
• Whether it is logical
• Whether it affords a full believable revelation

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Indeterminate ending

• Have no exact ending
• Some problems are never solved
• Some battles never permanently win
• No definitive conclusion is reached
• Example in hunter in the snow
• Indeterminate ending
• They wont maintain their alliance
• No information about the ultimate fate of their
  friendship
• But the story is more effective without a
  definite resoloution

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Artistic unity

• Is essential to a good plot
• There must be nothing in the story that is
  irrelevant that does not contribute to the
  meaning
• They include nothing that does not advance the
  central intention of the story
• Author select and arrange the storys incident
  and scenes in the most effective order.

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Plot manipulation

• A turn in plot that is unjustified by the
  situation or the characters
• it causes an motivated action
• The readers feel it ,if the authors use chance
  and coincidence to provide a resolution to a
  story
• This kind of resolution is called deus ex
  machina (god from a machine)
• God descend from heaven at the last min to rescue
  the protagonist

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Chance and coincidence (that can not be barred
from the real life and fiction)

• chance

• coincidence

• The occurrence of an event that has no apparent
  cause in previous events or in preposition of
  characters
• Using improbable chance for resolving a story may
  lose
• Its sense of conviction
• Its power to move the reader

• Is the chance occurrence of two events that may
  have a peculiar correspondence
• It must be used to initiate a story not to
  resolve it

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Various approach to analysis of plot

• 1- to draw diagram of different kind of plot
• 2- to trace the development of rising action,
  climax and falling action.
• To consider the function of plot in trying to
  understand the relationship of each incident to
  the larger meaning of the story

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Reviewing chapter two

• 1-define the term plot
• 2-describe the importance of conflict in fiction
• 3-differentiate between the protagonist and the
  antagonist in a story
• 4-explore the importance of the element of
  surprise in fiction
• 5-consider the differences between a happy ,
  unhappy and an indeterminate ending
• 6-review the importance of artistic unity in
  literary fiction

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Answer to the Question of the destructors

• 1-
• Protagonist Trevor
• antagonist Blackie and MR. Thomas
• Conflict man versus society
• 2-suspence is built in this story when the boys
  want to destroy Mr. Thomas s house and they
  fear that they couldnt destroy the house
  completely
• 3-a
• byes the story has happy ending because the
  protagonist of story achieved his goal to destroy
  the house

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