ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Power in Literature Short Stories: Part 4 862 Views


Share It!


Description:

What is plot? What does a plot look like? This video explores the role of the plot in literature and uses Freytag’s Pyramid to outline the plot of Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt from exposition to dénouement.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

We speak student!

00:03

Power in Literature: Plot

00:07

a la Shmoop.

00:08

We've thought through symbols, settings, and themes.

00:13

so one of the words that

00:14

we've used a couple times is plot

00:16

What is plot?

00:19

Plot is, plain and simple the narrative arc

00:23

of the story it's what happens

00:26

there's a very famous way to map the plot which was called Freytag's Pyramid

00:31

it's that the plot always starts with exposition

00:34

which is the narrator or the author

00:37

kind of setting up the story and getting you ready for what's about to come

00:41

then we move into the rising action and you kind of see the

00:44

pyramid-building like this the rising action is

00:48

you know the plot has begun but it hasn't quite reached the boiling point

00:53

then we get to the top of the pyramid and we're at the climax

00:57

a lot of people think of the climax as

01:00

the most exciting part of the story and often it is, but

01:04

in reality what the climax is is the turning point of the story

01:07

once we reach the climax there's no going back

01:10

then we have the falling action this is where things like kind of start to

01:15

wrap-up a few loose ends get to be tied up

01:19

and then we end up back down at the resolution or the denouement, which is

01:23

basically just the conclusion of the story, sometimes we find out what

01:27

happened to the character

01:29

and sometimes it's ambiguous, but regardless of how a story ends

01:32

there's always that conclusion whether or not we like it or not

01:36

What does a plot look like?

01:38

I'm gonna try to do this for The Veldt which is a Ray Bradbury short story

01:42

one my favorites

01:43

okay so the exposition of that story is it starts with

01:47

the mother kinda of expressing her concern

01:50

to the father about what is happening and we find out a little bit about this world

01:54

she's saying she's worried about the nursery because XY and z.

01:58

and so we're able to see oh, okay

02:01

here's what's happening we're in a dystopian world,

02:03

the kids are playing with lions

02:05

okay we got that that's the exposition then the rising action happened

02:09

as we see the kids kind of playing in the

02:12

African veldt and we see the lions get a little bit feisty

02:17

things start to get a little bit

02:21

concerning the tone of the story is super spooky

02:25

so you know that builds up to

02:28

the climax when the mother and father

02:32

realize something in very very wrong and they bring in

02:36

the psychologist who kind of confirms this and says you have to turn the

02:41

nursery off you have to turn the entire house off

02:43

that's when you know there's a turning point and we realized it's too late

02:47

it's not going back they can't turn the house off

02:51

then the falling action happens when the parents go to try and get the kids out

02:56

and the kids are like, "yeah Mom and Dad, come on in!"

03:00

and the parents you know go on into the into the nursery into the veldt

03:04

and then

03:04

the conclusion is when the psychologist walks into the nursery and

03:09

sees the lions eating something

03:13

which is the parents so you can kind of see the arc of the story

03:16

where it's always

03:17

there some explanation some tension build

03:21

then there's the point of no return and then we get the conclusion of the story

03:24

and this works whether it's a six hundred-page novel

03:27

or like The Veldt which is like three page story

03:31

What is plot?

03:33

What does a plot look like?

03:37

"Run away!"

Up Next

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
123037 Views

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...

Related Videos

The Giver Summary
105891 Views

Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...

Invisible Man (Ellison)
1818 Views

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1255 Views

Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...

Quotes: A fool's paradise
293 Views

Find out the meaning behind "a fool's paradise."