erry) Plot and Conflict Every good story Is Fueled by conflict. Can the hero survive the dangerous journey? Will the star-crossed lovers end up together, despite thele feuding families? When 2 story grabs your interest, it’ usually because the conflict iz exciting and dramatic. Looking closely at how conflicts develap throughout the stages of a plot isa key part of analyzing a story and understanding why it hooks you. Les PU Mars wpstsunaee Part 1: Plot Stages and Conflict wctictintwaishon |The seriesof eventsin anaratveis called plot. At the heat of any pot 3 SSSR SRS confit or struggle, between opposing forces. conflict isinternalr external eovig cision: 2a ah + An Internal confit sa struggle within a characters mind, The struggle Seisbeteteteen a Lsually centers on a choice of decision the character must make, Should she ‘Sanden potting tre pat tell the truth? Can he overcome his jealousy? faa 28 + An external conflict is a clash between a character and an outside force, such asanother character, society or a force of nature. Will the athlete defeat her bitter rival? Can the soldiers endure the war? Whether internal or extemal, a conflict is usually introduced at the beginning ‘of anarrative. As the characters attempt to resalve the conflict,"the plot “thickens” at each stage. Will the characters succeed? You keep turning the pages to find out the answer to this question.MODEL 1: CONFLICT IN EXPOSITION In the exposition of this story,a young warrior named Temas is about to ‘face a crucial test of adulthood in Masai culture—killing a lion. What conflicts emerge as Temas prepares for this pivotal moment? BROTHERS ARE THE SAME Short story by Beryl Markham Yer in his mind Temas now trembled. Fear of bare was a nonexistent Close Read shing—but fear of failure could be real, and was. It was real andi 1. Review the BSEEaetai lkepr alive by the nexrness of an enemy more formidable than any lion— Wat does it tell you about the building 5 ‘confi between Temas and Medoto? 2 inadaition this ‘confit with Medoto, ‘what incernal conf is plaguing Temast MODEL 2: CONFLICT AT CLIMAX ai te Temas learns that hls seals actualy afiend.Fndout how the «conflict between Temas and Medoto changes at the story's climax. During the tet, Temas feels relieved when the lon attacks another hunter ‘Then Meda throws a stone, causing the lon t charge Temas. Without Iesitarion, Temas hills the lion. Laer, Medoo explains himself to Temas. “If until now, Thave seemed your enemy, ic was beeause I feared you would | Close Read be braver chan I for when I fought my ion my knees tembled and my heart 1. How has the conf ‘was white—uneil thar charge was mate. No one knew that, and Iam called between Temasand ‘Medoto, the unflinching, but | flinched. I twembled.” Medoto changed? + Heseepped closer to Temas. He smiled. “Ir is no good to lie,” he said “I ‘Suppor your answer ‘wanted you to fil, bt when I saw you hesitate I could not bear it because 1 withevidence. remembered my own hour of feat Ie was then I threw the stone—not t shame | 2 What aspect af Medeto's ‘you, bur w save you fiom shame—for Tsaw that your fear was not feat of andes conflict stil ‘ath, but fear of fulure—and this | understood. You are a greater wastior than ternalne unesolved? ‘than any—for who but the bravest would do what you have done?” Medora Explain, [paused and watched alight of wonderment kindle in Temas eye. The hand of “Temas slipped from his sword, his muscles relaxed. Yer, for a moment, he did snot speak, and as he looked at Medoto, ie was clear to both thatthe identical ‘houghe, the identical vision, had come to each of them. [twas the vision tharPart 2: Sequence and Time Fron fairy tales, with their“once upon atime” beginnings and"happily ever after” endings, to modem classics, many great stories feature chronological order. The events follow a linear structure—that is, they take place one after the other. ‘Sometimes, however, a writer plays with time by interrupting the chronological order oF events. He or she may suddenly focus on an event from the past or hint Bt future events. Avriter may manipulate time fora varity of reasons—for example to give you a deeper sense of the characters and conflicts or to keep you wondering what will happen next. Flashback and foreshadowing are two common devices that writers use to introduce past and future events. By recognizing these devices you can followa story more closely and leam how the author manipulates time to create mystery tension,or surprise. a What i t2 ‘An account of 2 conversation, eplode, or ‘event that happened before the beginning ‘ofthe story or at an ealler point v What does it do? + Interrupts the main action to describe earlier events + Shows how past events ed up tothe ‘present situation, sometimes creating ‘mystery orsurple in the process + Provides background information about character or event v How can! recognize it? + Look for possible clue words and phrases, ‘such as"that summer.""asa young boy lormher earliest memories” + Keep trackof the chronological order of ‘events so that you willbe aware of events ‘that interrupt this order What is it? ‘Avwiters use ofhints.or dues tn eaty scenes to suggest events that will ‘occurlater What does it do? + Prepares readers for events that ‘come ater—ofte inthe climax or the resolution + Creates tension and suspense + Matesreaders eager tokeep reading[orzo MODEL: FLASHBACK ‘Moments after meeting the narrator in this story, you are transported to an earlier time in his if. As you read, notice what this flashback reveals ‘about the narrator and his family “Sweet Potato Pie Short story by Eugenia Collier From up hereon the fourteenth floor, my brother Charley looks liken insect Clase Read scunying among other insects. A deep feling of love surges through me. 1. plain what happens Because I see Charley so seldom, my thoughts hover over hr like before the Rashback. hummingbirds. The cheerful, impersonal tidiness of this toom is a world away 12 At whut point does the ‘5 from Charley's walkoup flat in Harlem and a hundred worlds from the bare, ‘ashback begla? Explain noisy shanty where he and the rest of us spent what there was of childhood, the words or phrases that ‘elose my eyes, and side by side I see the Charley of my boyhood and the helped you dently ‘Charley ofthis afternoon, as clearly as if were looking ar asplit TV screen. Another surge of love, sessoncd 2 Find three detallsthat ‘describe the narrators vaguely ‘and Charley farly. One impsed as they left for dhe field before I was fully awake or as they trudged has beenBoxed] What ‘wearily into the house ar night when my lids were irresistibly heavy. do these details tll you 18 They came into sharp focus enly on special occasions. One such occasion about tele childhood? was the day when the crops were in and the sharceroppers were paid. In our ‘cabin there was so much excitement in the ai thar even I, che “baby.” responded 1 it. For weeks we had been running out of things chat we could neither grow nor geton credit. On the evening ofthat day we waited anxiously for our 20 parent recurn, Then we would cluster around the rough wooden table—I on Li's lap or dinging to Charley’ neck, little Alberta nervously tugging her plit, Jamie crouched ar Mamas elbow; ikea panther about to spring, and all seven. ‘of ussilene for once, waiting, Pa would place the money om the tble—genely, for it was made fiom the sweat of ther bodies and from their children’ tears. 2 Mama would count it our in litle ples, her dark face stern and, I chink now, [eautifal. Nor with the hollow beauty of well-modeled fearures bue with the strong radiance of one whe has suffered and never yielded. “This for store bill,” she would mutter, making alittle pile. “This for lection. This for pice 'gingham . .." and so on, stretching the money as 0 sight over our collective needs as Jamies outgrown pants were stretched over 44. How does the flashback ny bottom. “Well, thar’ the crop.” She would look up ar Paar last. “I'l do.” help you understand the ‘Pa face would relax, and a general grin flited from child wo child. We would, narrators felings about survive, a least forthe present. chatley? exraNausis wouxsHor 31Part 3: Analyze the Text Itseems lke a familiar story. Girl meets and falls in lave with boy. Boy fall in love with git. After overcoming a few problems, they live happily ever after. Right? Wrong. This story traces a conflict, but that conflict is not resolved in a predictable way. As you read, use what you've learned about plot structure, conflict, and sequence to analyze the story. 32 ‘Her parents had moved her to Cincinnati, ro alarge house with beveled glass! ‘windows and several porches and the history her mother liked to emphasize. Yowllove the hose they sid Youllbeloney ar fist hey mite but youse e anything at all, so they might allow her wo nish growing up inthe wn offer childhood, they firmed their mouths and spoke from their chests and they suid, Ws decidd, ‘They moved her to Cincinnati, where for a monthhe spent the Greate] fpareof every day in a room ‘windows, sifting through photographs ofthe life she'd lived and left behind, [Bur is dic ing, and in is own way a Kind oF art, and Finally she didnt have the energy for itanymore, so she emerged from the beautiful house and fll n love ‘with a bag boy ac the supermarket. OF couuse, this didnt happen all at ence, Jn ke has, bain che “Her parents wrote up the Ist and handed ic co her and off she went without “bested las gor whore edge acuta angle Close Read 1. What doyouteamn ‘about the setting and ‘the main character's ‘stuationin the ‘exposition of thie stony? 2 Reread lines n=, which ‘stthestagefortne rain conflict. What do ‘yu think the conflict wall be about? 3: Review thelbaradetals about the ge. What do ‘they reveal about her personaly?‘complain ro perform what they regatded asa great sacrifice of her time and a ‘sgn thar she was indeed a very nice girl. She had never tald them how much ‘she loved grocery shopping, only that she was “willing” to do it. She had an tuition which told her that her parents were not safe for sharing such strong, jportant facts about herself. Ler them think they knew her. ‘Once inside the supermarket, her hands firmly around the handle of the carr, she would lapse inta a kind of reverie and wheel toward the produce. Like a Tiberan monk? in solitary meditation, she calmed to a point of deep, deep happiness: this feeling came co hes, reliably, if strangely, only in the ‘supermarket, ‘one day the bag bay dropped her jar of mayonnaise and that is how she fell in love. ‘Hee was nervous—frst day on the job—and along had come this fascinating ‘girl, standing in the checkout line with the unfocused state one often secs in ‘young children, her face turned enough away thar he might take several full looks at her as he packed sturdy bags Fall of faod and the goods of modera life. ‘She interested him because her hais was red and thick, and in it she had placed aa huge orange bow, nearly the size of a small hat. That was cnough to distract him, and when finally it was her groceries he was packing, she looked at him and smiled and he could respond only by busting her jar of mayonnaise on the ‘floor, shards of glas and oozing cream decorating the area around his fet. ‘She loved him ar exactly that moment, and iFhed known this perhaps he ‘wouldnt have fallen into the brown depression he fell invo, which lasted the rest of his shift. He believed he must have looked a foo! in her eyes, and he ‘envied the sureness of everyone around him: the cocky cashier atthe register, the grim and harried score manager, the bland butcher, and che brazen bag boys who smoked in the warehouse on their breaks. He wanted a second chance. Another chance to be confident and say witty things to her as he threw tn cans into her bags, persuading her to allow him to help her to her car so hhe might learn just litte about her, check our the floor of the car for signs of hobbies or ershes and the bumpers for clucs as ro beliefs and layaltis.. ‘But he busted her jar of mayonnaise and nothing else worked out for the est of the day. "Tibetan monk a member of wut sectional Ass tha prates ediation Close Read 44. What event onthis page sets the reing action in 5. How would you describe the confit faced by the ‘Bl and the bag boy? How does this conflict make the story more Interesting? ext awaurssworxsion 33‘Scrange, how arcractive clumsiness can be. She left rhe supermarket with ‘Close Read sears in her eyes, for she had loved the way his Long nervous fingers moved ‘6. Review lines 25-68. from the conveyor belt ro the bags, how deflly (until the mayonnaise) dhey ‘Summarize the sequence ‘3 had picked up her items and placed them into her bags. She had loved the way of events that begins the hair kepe filling inco his eyes as he leaned aver to grab a bax or a tin. And. with the boy's dropping the tartered brown shoes he wore with no socks. And the let side of his collar the jar How do these: sumed in rather than our. ‘events build suspense “The bag bay seemed a wonderful contaas ro the perfectly beautifil house about what wall happen? 46 she had been forced to accept as her home, to the history she hated, co the loneliness she had become used to, and she couldait wait to come back for ‘more of his awlovardness and dishevelment. Incredibly, it was another four weeks before they saw each other again. ‘As fare would have it, her visits to the supermarket never coincided with 165 his schedule to bag, Fach rime she went to the store, her eyes scanned the checkouts at ance, her hart in her mouth. And each hour he worked, the bag, boy kepr one eye on the door, watching for the red-haited giel with the big orange bow. [Nevin thes ment these weeks there was a Kind of ecstasy 7. What detailed tines 17 reason enough to be alive, the hope you may see again some face which has (coe tellyou that the theant something to you. The anticipation of meeting the hag boy eased the fit and the boy are jel’s painful transition into hex new and jarring life in Cincinnati It provided ‘enjoying the excitement for heran anchor ami al thar was impersonal and unfamilig, and she spent ofthe busing confi? less time on thoughts of whar she bad left behind as she concentrated on what Onehasbeenfoxed] 175 might lie ahead. And for the boy, che long nd often tedious hours ar the supermarker which provided no challenge other than that of showing up the following workday .... these hours became possibilities of mystery and tomance for him as he watched the electric doors forthe girl in the orange bow. ind when fnallyhey did meet up again, neither offered a clueto the other, Lookfortime cues—tke wo Pa tae ‘heen the object of obsessive thought for weeks. She the Baxedlexamplesin sported himfas oom as]she came into the store, bur she kepe her eyes stricely in lines 79 and &\—that front of her ashe pulled out a cart and wheeled it toward the produce. And signal the order of events. hs, t00, knew the instant she came through the door—though the orange bow Has the structure ofthis ‘was gone, replaced by a small bur brighe yellow flower insteacl—and he never plot been chronological Sofar? Explain. 34° ner ec xansarive sraucruaeaes ‘once curned his head in her direction but warched her from the corner of his vision as he tied to swallow back the fear in hie dhroat. Tris add how we sometimes deny ourselves the very pleasure we have longed for and which is finaly within ous teach. For some perverse reason she would not have been able to articulate, che gil did not bring her cart up to the bag boy's checkout when her shopping was done. And the bag bay let her leave the store, pretending no notice of her. “Thisis often the way of children, when they truly want a thing, ro pretend. thac chey don't. And then they grow angry when no one tries harder to give them this thing they so casually tejecred, and they soon find themselves in a rage simply Because they cannot say yes when they mean yes. Humans are very ‘complicated. (And perhaps cars, who have been known 19 react in the same ‘way, though the resulking rage can only be guessed at) ‘The girl hated herself for not checking our atthe boy's line, and the boy hated himself for nor carching her eye and saying hello, and they most sincerely hated cach other without having ever exchanged even two minutes ‘of conversation. 'ventually—in fier, within the week—a kind and intelligent boy who lived ‘very near her beautiful house asked the girl to a movie and she gave up her fancy for the bag boy ax the supermarker. And the bag boy himself grew sa bored wich his job char he made a desperate search for something better and ended up in a bookstore where scores of fascinating girls lingered like honeybees abou a hive. Some months later the bag boy and the gil with the ‘orange bow again crossed parhs, standing in line with their dates ar a movie theater, and, glancing coward the other, each smiled slightly, then looked away, as strangers on public buses often do, when one is moving off the bus and the ‘other is moving on. Close Read 18. Reveadlines 75-86, which mark the storys ‘imac. How dathe characters resolve the ‘main conflet? 10. inthe falingaction stage, lines 87-101, the characters veflacton thelr factions. Are they happy ‘withthe way they've Inandled the confi? Explain, 11 Reread the resolution in lines 102m, What are the result ofthe conflict foreach character? 1, Describe the parallel structure the three ‘encounters between the {lvland the boy. How are ‘the meting simile? ‘rexr aNatrsis woaksuor 35