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PLOT QUESTIONS 1. What time period does the story cover -- e.g., one hour, one day, one year, a lifetime? 2. What details of the characters' past does the author allude to in order to make current action more comprehensible? 3. Does the story have a simple plot or a complicated one? 4. As you read the story, were you aware of how the sequence of events was developing, or could you detect the planned pattern of happenings only after you had finished reading? 5. Does the author make use of foreshadowing? How extensively? 6. Does the author present events in chronological order, as they happen? 7. Does the author make use of flashback? How extensively? 8. Does the author spring a surprise ending on you? How? Was the ending effective? 9. Why do you think the author develops the plot action the way he does? 10. Is the presentation of events convincing? Confusing? What is the major conflict of the story? 11. What events acting on each other intensify the conflict? suspense? 12. What events acting on each other help intensify the suspense? 13. What is the climax of the story? 14. How are events brought to the climax? 15. Is the climax believable and inevitable or artificial and forced? 16. How are climactic events resolved in the denoument? 17. List the major events as they occur in the exposition, rising action, and falling action. 18. How do the events of the story shape the personalities of the characters? 19. Do you find it sad that the characters cannot foresee the future impact of events and interactions? 20. Do the conflicts and dilemmas seem universal to you (i.e., do they reflect your own and other people's experiences), even if particular events do not? Why |
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PLOT 1. What type of conflict does the main character face? 2. What is the exposition? The narrative hook? 3. What complications in the rising action increase the conflict? 4. What is the climax, the point of highest reader interest? 5. Does the resolution logically follow the conflict and climax? |
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READING / LITERATURE INDEX LITERATURE ON LINE |
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"The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died, and then the queen died of grief" is a plot. -- E. M. Forster |