Key Skills in English


Middles Te middle of a story involves a series of events or complications which have important functions:


■ Tey increase the tension for the reader. ■ As the story evolves, we get a deeper insight into the characters, observing how they grow and change as they confront various obstacles or conflicts.


■ Although some of the earlier, minor crises are resolved to some extent, the story continues until it reaches a major crisis or climax.


Endings


At the end of a narrative the main conflict is resolved and any loose ends are tied up. Although the tension falls quickly, a good ending leaves the reader satisfied that the story is complete even if they are disappointed with the way things turned out.


Endings usually come quite quickly aſter the main climax. Given that it is the desire to know what is going to happen next which keeps the reader engaged, there is not much to maintain interest aſter the climax, which usually answers most of the reader’s questions about the outcome of the plot.


A good ending has one or more of the following features:


■ Tey show (or suggest) the result of the story’s conflict. ■ Tey are related to the actions of the main character/s. ■ Tey use material from the story’s beginning and middle sections. ■ Tey make the reader feel something. ■ Tey make the reader think about some issue. ■ Tey give a sense of satisfaction and completion.


A very simple example of the relationship between the middle and the ending of a story can be seen in the children’s fairytale of Te Tree Little Pigs. Aſter the introduction of the three pigs and their decisions to build houses, tension builds up each time that the wolf manages to blow a house down. Te wolf ’s inability to blow down the house made of bricks resolves a crisis until the wolf decides to come down the chimney instead. Tension builds until the climax is reached when the wolf falls into the pot of boiling water. Te ending of the story quickly follows as the scalded wolf either dies in the pot or races away, never to be seen again.


Novels and short stories are far more complex and subtle than a child’s fairytale, but the same narrative curve or arc occurs. Te story begins, becomes more complex until it reaches a climax and then moves quickly to its conclusion.


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Unit 3: Ficiton


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