Makes no sense...yet

In the short story Hunters in the Snow, many events occur in the plot that do not seem to make sense with events that occured earlier in the story. There are many examples of this. For instance, when Kenny shoots the dog, he seems to just do it out of impulse. Before he kills the dog, he expresses how he hates it just as he said he hated the wooden post. But in fact, he shot the dog because the owner had asked him to. After finding this out and going back and re reading the dog shooting scene, it still did not appear as if he was planning on shooting it. He never told his friends about it, which was strange, and makes me begin to question the true relationship between the three. Another part that does not makes sense is when the friends seem all worried that Tub had shot Kenny. But in the final sentence of the story, we figure out that they meant to take the wrong turn to the hospital almost the whole time. They seemed sincere in caring for their friend, but not at the end. It is almost inhumane how they act at the end. So the plot doesn't seem to make sense with what happens later in the story and I'm not sure whether or not this is supposed to represent something....in which I'm sure that it is.

Buildup

The Plot of "Interpreter of Maladies" is what causes the end of the story and Mrs. Das' true feelings towards Mr. Kapasi even more surprising. The story is told in 3rd person, but only focuses on the thoughts of Mr. Kapasi. Because of this, the timeline of events that happen throughout the story are mostly his thoughts and the buildup of how he increasingly becomes attracted towards Mrs. Das. This buildup is what lead me to believe that Mrs. Das actually had the same feelings towards him, but there is no proof of this before she tells him her secret. She is interested when he tells her about his job, and this also lead me to think she was attracted to him as well. But it ended up that she did not. When she spills out her secret to him, Mr. Kapasi and the reader find out that she was only interested in him becasuse she was hoping "[he] could help [her] feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy." This is what really makes me mad is that she was so ignorant to think that even though he was an interpreter for a doctor, that he could "interpret" her problems and suggest what to do for her. When she does this, it crushes Mr. Kapasi and surprised me that she did not really have any affectionate feelings towards him.

Back and Forth

The Plot of the Things They Carried does not follow a timelined sequence of events. The author, instead jumps around from the time during the war to the time after the war, to the time before the war. In terms of time, there is no order of things. However, what I do beleive the author follows is a progression of what he wants to get across in this novel. He has an organized progression of ideas that are unparallel to a timed sequence of events. For example, the book begins by describing what the soldiers carried during the war. The next chapter, however, goes on to describe the meeting of two characters after the war and two chapter after that, the author talks about himself when he got drafted during the war. So while the the plot does have a series of related events, the author finds it unecessary to follow a specific timeling in order to get his point across.

Plot or no Plot? That is the question

I have just finished reading book 1 and so far this book has a plot much different than that of other books. Ordinary books have a story line in which conflict rises and rises throughout the story and there is usually purpose in the story. However, with The Sun Also Rises, there seems to be very little purpose. The central conflict seems to be Jake's wound and his relationship with Brett, but that is about it. He just goes through life and meets up with friends and drinks as if there was no tomorrow. Moreover, there is no rising action as other books traditionally have. No other complications in conflict occur because of his wound. It just seems to be continuous pain for Jake and his inability to be with Brett, but nothing more ever comes out of it. Jake never tries much to do anything about it either when he very much could. For example, when the count comes with Brett to Jake's hotel in chapter 7 on page 60, Brett offers to send the count away but he replies by saying, "No. He's nice." However, I think that the author wants to make it appear as if they have no true purpose in life.