Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type :
The Quest
The Call
You can see the "hero" in 2001 as the human race itself. From that perspective, the call to the journey here is issued by the slab, which drops down to earth to tell the man-apes that if they want to escape hunger and dread, they need to start evolving. It's a long, lonely road up the evolutionary ladder, but some man-ape has to do it.
The Journey
Humans set out to be intelligent…and then set out farther to fly to the moon…and then set out farther to go to Saturn, where a homicidal computer ambushes them. Stupid journey.
Arrival and Frustration
The human race (in the person of boring David Bowman) gets to the Star Gate, which is where the aliens pointed the man-apes all those years ago.
Final Ordeal
Through the Star Gate, there's lots of mind-blowing stuff. Psychedelic colors, awesome suns, magical fake apartments. Who would have thought a man-ape would get this far?
The Goal
Uber-evolved space-babyhood is achieved! That was the goal all along, as it turns out. Triumph of the slab and the space baby, at long last.