Comparing The Shroud, The Jewelry, And Sonny's Blues

Every book, story, and poem has a plot that uses the same key components to keep readers engaged in what is happening. Without plot it literature pieces would be dry bland and hard to read. Traditionally plot consists of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion to tell the order of what is happening. In the stories The Shroud, The Jewelry, and Sonny’s Blues each of the authors use the traditional components of plot in their stories. Plot is used to strengthen writings along with making the writing stronger. The Shroud is a short story by the famous Brothers Grimm. Though the story was not very long, the plot followed the tradition outline that is found in most stories. At the beginning of the story the characters were introduced, a mother and her son. Then the story tells how the son had grown ill and died, though this is a tragic moment in the book it is considered the exposition and not the rising action. It is the exposition due to the fact that the reader is not so emotionally attached, and that is due to the boy not having a name. If the Grimms had instead named the boy instead of just the mother referring to him as son the readers would be more emotional about his death and the rising action would not have been as

Sonny’s Blues was written in a more modern time period than The Shroud and The Jewelry, and when comparing the stories it is very evident. The author of Sonny's Blues, James Baldwin, does not follow chronological order when telling this story, instead he uses flashbacks and the main character’s memories to pull together the writing. Though Baldwin uses the flash backs to give the reader insight of what is happening and why the main character is acting and reacting to the different situations in life. Baldwin’s plot was a steady growth of bad problem after bad memory until there is almost a relief for the Sunny’s