#7 Plot

Does the plot have unity? Are all of the episodes relevant to the total meaning or effect of the story? Does each incident grow logically out of the preceding incident and lead naturally the next? Is the ending happy, unhappy, or indeterminate? Is it fairly achieved?

Overall, the plot has unity, but a lot of the episodes and memories that Nomi shares have nothing to do with the plot at all. The irrelevant episodes still do affect the total meaning of the story as they may have no significance, yet still signify growth of a character very subtly, or be a factor in how Nomi acts in later occurrences. “When I got to my driveway my neighbour came out all pissed off with her screaming son on her hip. There were bubbles coming out of the kid’s mouth and my neighbour said he’d just eaten two of her bath beads that she’d been saving for her anniversary night. That’s too bad, I said. My neighbour told me to just wait until I had kids. And then what? I asked. Well, then you’ll know true misery, she said. Oh then?” (p 242) There are also some episodes, or comments that are just irrelevant and add nothing to the plot, but there aren’t too many of them and they don’t really get in the way. “When I got home I sat on the floor of the garage and tied the hood as tightly as I could around my face, leaving an opening only large enough to accommodate a Sweet Cap. It was a good night. Maybe someday I could be a photographer, I thought. And then, unpredictable, a corner of the garage roof collapsed.” (p. 225) This is one of the most irrelevant paragraphs in the book, first of all she always smokes Sweet Caps, second of all she has never spoke of photography, or I don’t think even owns a camera, and this is her only mention of photography in the entire book. Lastly and most important, this paragraph is the last paragraph of a chapter and the garage roof collapsing has nothing to do with anything, and is never spoke of again. I think in a memoir-type book this is to be expected and is not a bad thing, even though it doesn’t add to the plot, it doesn’t take away from it either. I have considered that there could be some hidden meaning to the paragraph, that if you didn’t pick up on it, it doesn’t really change much. Nomi always talks about how her life will go no farther than the chicken killing plant, only because of where she lives, and how that’s what everyone ends up doing in East Village. I considered that her thinking that she might be a photographer (or anything other than killing chickens), and then the roof collapsing was somewhat of a sign, as in, ‘good luck that will never happen…to you.’ Due to some of the irrelevant thoughts and memories, and the style of writing the author used, the text doesn’t flow at all in an order of events, and jumps around a lot. I found this style very enjoyable to read and kept things interesting, jumping back and forth from loose end to loose end. The ending is interdeterminate, and fairly achieved, after a good amount of suspense and buildup, everything finally makes sense and comes to somewhat of a close, (but doesn’t leave you hanging). I believe that everyone should read this novel, and that it will do something for everyone, even though I have included excerpts from the end of the novel, the end has not been given away, and I believe the journey to the end is more important than the ending itself. Everyone should read this novel, and I think everyone would get something different out of it, but that no one would be disappointed.