E10A Analyzing Story Structure

What is the most common role that flashbacks play in written narratives?

• They give background information that helps readers understand a character.

• They make the reader wonder about the impact of future events.

• They develop a character by describing his or her dress and speech.

• They give clues as to what will happen later in the story.

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How do you analyze the structure of a story?

• Identify the story’s resolution and decide whether it is an appropriate ending to the story.

• Determine how the elements of the plot fit the basic narrative structure of a story.

• Consider whether the story’s climax resolves all of the complications.

• Identify the main characters and describe their situation.

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At what point does this passage from “The Zoo” shift into a flashback?
The manticores looked miserable. She wondered if it was because of the heat. They had human faces, or almost human, and sleek lion bodies, but they were so hot and tired-looking that Emily wondered if they would die soon. Her mother flinched every time the phone rang. Together they watched 24-hour news channels that told how hot it was in Tikrit and Baghdad and Fallujah, places Emily pinned on a map. She wondered how hot it was here, if they were keeping it so hot to make the manticores feel at home, but then she thought they must have overdone it, or maybe it was the humidity here, because the manticores looked on the verge of death.

• with the description of the manticores

• with Emily’s mother flinching when the phone rang

• with Emily wondering how hot it was in Iraq

• with the return of Emily’s focus to the manticores

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What is the main purpose of complications in a story’s narrative structure?

• Complications are meant to hint at the resolution of the story’s plot.

• Complications exist mainly to introduce and define the main characters.

• Complications create suspense and increase our interest in the outcome.

• Complications carry the narrative until something really interesting happens.

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Which event represents the climax of "The Zoo"?

• One of the children approaches the dangerous manticores.

• The main character’s father says he must go to Iraq.

• The bus full of children arrives at the zoo.

• Mrs. Satterfield faints from the heat.

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