Structure in Modern Prose
Senior 6 · Literature in English
Structure in Modern Prose
Lesson 1 of 5
25 min
A six-hundred-page novel, a three-page short story, a memoir of a childhood in Gisagara and a newspaper feature all have one thing in common: they are written in prose, the ordinary language of sentences and paragraphs. In Senior 6 you study prose as a craftsman studies a building: not only what the story is, but how it is put together. This unit is about that structure.
The English novelist E. M. Forster drew the key distinction in Aspects of the Novel (1927):
"The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died, and then the queen died of grief" is a plot.
A story is events in time order. A plot adds causes: the reader asks not only "and then?" but "why?".
Definition
| Prose | Poetry | Drama |
|---|---|---|
| Sentences and paragraphs; chapters | Lines and stanzas | Acts, scenes, speeches |
| Told by a narrator | Spoken by a speaker or persona | No narrator: characters speak directly; stage directions guide performance |
| Can enter characters' thoughts at length | Compresses thought into images | Shows thought through soliloquy, aside or action |
| Can cover years and many places | Often captures one moment or feeling | Limited by what can be staged |
| Rhythm of ordinary speech | Rhythm, metre and sound patterns | Rhythm of spoken dialogue, sometimes verse |
The elements you will analyse in any prose work are plot, character, setting, narrative point of view, theme, style (word choice, imagery, sentence patterns) and structure (how the parts are ordered and joined).
The German critic Gustav Freytag described the shape of a five-part plot in 1863. It was designed for tragedy, but it works for much prose fiction:
| Conflict | Example |
|---|---|
| Character against character | A wrestler against his great rival |
| Character against society | A man against the new colonial order and church |
| Character against self | A man's fear of seeming weak against his love for a boy |
| Character against nature | Farmers against drought or locusts |
| Character against fate or the supernatural | A king against a prophecy |
Chinua Achebe's novel (1958) is a common set book, and its plot shows the pyramid clearly. The summary below is Ganzaa's; the novel itself is in copyright.
| Stage | In the novel (summary) |
|---|---|
| Exposition | Okonkwo is famous across the nine villages of Umuofia for throwing an unbeaten wrestler. He works fiercely, driven by shame at his father Unoka, a gentle debtor who loved music. We learn the clan's customs, courts and festivals. |
| Inciting incident | A boy, Ikemefuna, is given to Umuofia by a neighbouring village as compensation for a killing, and is placed in Okonkwo's household. |
| Rising action | Ikemefuna becomes like a son. When the Oracle decrees his death, Okonkwo, afraid of seeming weak, strikes the fatal blow himself. Later his gun accidentally kills a boy at a funeral, and he is exiled for seven years to his mother's village. Missionaries arrive; his son Nwoye joins the church. |
| Climax | Back in Umuofia, after the clan's leaders have been jailed and humiliated, Okonkwo kills a court messenger at a meeting, but the clan does not rise to fight with him. |
| Falling action and resolution | Okonkwo is found to have hanged himself, an act his clan considers an abomination. The District Commissioner plans a book on "the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger" in which Okonkwo's life may fill a paragraph. |
A point for debate. Not every reader puts the climax in the same place. Some argue that the real turning point is the killing of Ikemefuna, after which Okonkwo's fall becomes certain; others choose the killing of the messenger, the moment of highest tension. Either can be argued, if you define "climax" and support your choice. The structure has a further twist: the novel's three parts (Umuofia, exile in Mbanta, return) match the three stages of Okonkwo's fall.
Worked example: mapping a short story
Story (written for this lesson): Keza, a Senior 6 student in Rubavu, has saved for two years to buy a laptop. On the morning she goes to buy it, her younger brother falls ill and the clinic asks for payment before treatment. She hesitates at the clinic door, then pays. Months later her teacher, hearing why she still writes her essays by hand, lends her the school's spare laptop for the national exams.
Conflict: mainly character against self (her goal against her duty), with a touch of character against circumstance.
Tip
Never just retell. In an exam, a plot summary earns very little. Use the plot as evidence: "The killing of Ikemefuna is placed at the centre of Part One, so that everything afterwards reads as its consequence."
Warning
"What is a Plot?", from the Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms (OSU School of Writing, Literature and Film). Listen for the difference between plot and story, and compare it with Forster's king and queen.
Practice
Sources and credits
