Plot

Freytag’s Triangle

ExpositionComplication or Rising Action or

DevelopmentClimaxDenouement or Falling ActionConclusion or ResolutionLink

Plots Patterns We Know

When you go to the video store or the book store, what categories of movies or books do you find?

Detective FictionRomanceActionScience FictionSuspenseDescribe the action of the plot for any one

of these.

Romance NovelExposition = Girl meets boy. They fall in

love. Complication = But, other girl plants seed of

doubt in boy’s mind. He sends girl away.Climax =Boy discovers other girl’s treachery,

but it’s too late. Girl has disappeared.Denouement = Boy finds girl before she

jumps off cliff.Conclusion = They live happily ever after

Some other plot patterns

PicaresqueStream of Consciousness/PsychologicalBildungsromanNovel of MannersWesternGothicEpistolary

So what?

What’s so important about plot structure to literary critics? Or,

Why do we need to pay attention to the way a story is told?

Plot and McPhersonHow would you describe McPherson’s plot

structure?-- (swings back and forth between characters)How does it relate to the theme or meaning of

the story?-- (Manicheanism--thinking in dualities)-- he foregrounds this kind of dual thinking

while at the same time challenging it.