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Introduction to narrative :: Ruth :: Jonah

Hebrew narrative: Ruth and Jonah by Tim Bulkeley

Plot and Structure

Plot from Beginning to End

"A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end."
He goes on to draw attention to the necessary characteristics of these three parts:: "A beginning is that which does not itself follow anything by causal necessity, but after which something naturally is or comes to be. An end, on the contrary, is that which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by necessity, or as a rule, but has nothing following it. A middle is that which follows something as some other thing follows it. A well constructed plot, therefore, must neither begin nor end at haphazard, but conform to these principles."; Aristotle. "Poetics." Poetics by Aristotle. 12 May 2000. Online. Internet. 5 Dec 2000; 20:50 GMT +12. Available: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.1.1.html #290

These axioms are not as useless as they seem. For if we notice that a beginning is something that does not need to come after something else and that an end naturally does follow something else yet is not itself necessarily followed by anything, then we have a way of distinguishing beginnings and ends, even relative beginnings and ends within a larger whole.

Also if we apply this "beginning, middle, end" idea specifically to narrative we find that stories have three parts of a more precise kind. These are often referred to as "exposition", "complication" and "denouement or resolution".

Stories begin from a certain situation which poses a problem or shows up something lacking.

The presentation of this is the "exposition". Thereafter a series of actions produce transformations, which complicate the resolution of the initial problem, "complication". Finally the initial problem is overcome or the lack is filled, "resolution".

Such a simple schema lets us describe the basics of plot, but it does not suffice to list all the elements even in simple narratives. A number of details can be added to such an approach.

Order and Speed of Telling

Russian formalists drew attention to the distinction between the order of events in the story told (fabula) and the order of events in the telling (sjuzet or syuzhet). Flashback is a clear example of such a distinction, the event being told (sjuzet) is some time, maybe years earlier than the place in the story (fabula) at which it is told.

A less extreme, but often interesting variation, is when the speed of telling becomes faster or slower. That is, the ratio of sjuzet "telling" to fabula "events told" may be faster or slower. When the telling slows down our attention is drawn to what is happening.

Noticing such phenomena can draw attention to the messages the text is communicating.

A Linguistic Approach to Plot

An American socio-linguist, William Labov, studied storytelling by ordinary inner city black people. His analysis of the content of their stories was found to be helpful in examining biblical narrative (Berlin, 101). He found six elements were commonly present in his informants "stories" though not all would be present every time and some were less common than others. (Cf. Clines)

Abstract: one or several phrases, at the start, which sum up the story.
Orientation (= Exposition): indicates the place, time and characters - thus situating the action.
Action (= Complication): the "story" itself, telling "what happened".
Evaluation: a justification of the story, explaining why it was worth telling - points out the unusual or astonishing in the storyline or in e.g. the Bible the theological significance.
Result (Resolution): ends the action of the story and tells how the problem was overcome. Sometimes, even often, though the storyline ends here the discourse will continue (see 6.).
Coda: phrase(s) indicating the end of the story, often bringing things up to date.

The uses of such a functional approach can be seen if we look at a short biblical narrative, Gen 6:1-8.

In this little story there is no abstract, in fact these are rather rare in biblical narrative style.
Orientation is present in v. 1-2. There the situation is presented, note that to some extent since this story forms part of a larger story this is presupposed.
In this little story the action takes place initially through God's words and conclusions.
Evaluation is present in a sense for the phrase "these were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown" v. 4b links the story (with its rather unusual cast) to figures known by the audience. In fact evaluation in this technical sense is not common in biblical narrative, perhaps because from early times these texts had a quasi-canonical, authoritative, status.
The resolution is not present because this story forms part of a wider whole, the last phrase however suggests the eventual resolution by its introduction of the well known figure of Noah.
In a certain sense this last phrase is like a coda too, for it brings the story forward to its next episode "Noah and the Ark".

The narrative framework of the book of Job provides an even better example:

Orientation in 1:1-3;
Evaluation: by repetition, enumeration 1:3 "the greatest of...", and comparison 42:7 "you have not... as my servant Job has";
a Resolution is offered when Job receives double what he lost 42:10-15, whilst the "friends" must humble themselves before him 42:7-9 and
a Coda, 42:16-17, which leads the reader to the third generation and Job to his death.

There are a number of more complex approaches, but these will suffice for introducing our study of Ruth and Jonah.