Black Ships Before Troy

4/11/2020 StudySync - Model - Story Structure - Black Ships Before Troy Story Structure - Black Ships Before Troy Model Identification and Application: Analyze how a particular scene, chapter, or even a sentence contributes to the development of the plot, adding humor, tension, or suspense. How do specific events, dialogue, or descriptions help to create those effects? Try to identify the basic parts of the story structure: beginning (introduction of a problem), middle (development of the conflict, leading to a climax), and ending (resolution of the conflict). Think about how the author controls the order of events. Are the events presented in chronological order? Does time pass in between? Are flashbacks used? Model: Every good story has a beginning, middle, and end. But how do these parts relate to the whole? First, authors carefully choose words and construct sentences to convey meaning to the reader through plot and character development. As they write, authors also consider how to structure, or organize, what they have written so the story unfolds in a way that will hold the reader’s interest. Most stories are organized into chapters, and key sentences within those chapters provide clues about the development of the plot. The structure is important for understanding the story’s theme, setting, characters, and plot. In the chapter “The Golden Apple,” from Rosemary Sutcliff’s Black Ships Before Troy, the first paragraph brings readers directly into the time and place of the story. In the high and far-off days when men were heroes and walked with the gods, Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, took for his wife a sea nymph called Thetis, Thetis of the Silver Feet. Many guests came to their wedding feast, and among the mortal guests came all the gods of high Olympus. Readers can tell that the story is a myth from ancient times, involving gods and heroes. The setting is a wedding feast; gods and mortals are celebrating together. But an uninvited guest has suddenly arrived at the wedding feast. It is Eris, the goddess of discord, in "her blackest mood." This key sentence in paragraph 2 of the text provides readers with a clue that there will be trouble ahead: But as they sat feasting, one who had not been invited was suddenly in their midst: Eris, the goddess of discord, had been left out because wherever she went she took trouble with her; yet here she was, all the same, and in her blackest mood, to avenge the insult. https://apps.studysync.com/#!/core-ela/6/25/instructional-path 1/2 4/11/2020 StudySync - Model - Story Structure - Black Ships Before Troy At this point, an element of suspense has been introduced into the story. Readers wonder: What is it that Eris will do? How is she going to cause trouble at the wedding? With these first two paragraphs, the plot, or sequence of events in the story, has begun to take shape. Other key sentences in paragraphs 3 and 4 contribute to the development of the plot and help move the action of the story along. Look at these key sentences below: All she did—it seemed a small thing—was to toss down on the table a golden apple. Then she breathed upon the guests once, and vanished. The apple lay gleaming among the piled fruits and the brimming wine cups; and bending close to look at it, everyone could see the words “To the fairest” traced on its side. With this simple action, Eris sets up the story’s conflict, or problem, as the three greatest goddesses—Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite—all try to claim the golden apple. The goddesses argue, unable to decide amongst themselves who is the “the fairest.” Soon, their argument grows into a bitter quarrel, as each goddess calls upon the other guests to judge who is fairest. “But the other guests refused, for they knew well enough that whichever goddess they chose to receive the golden apple, they would make enemies of the other two.” Readers now learn that time has passed—approximately twenty years—and the setting of the story has changed, from the wedding, to Mount Olympus, and then to somewhere far away: Troy. The key sentences in paragraphs 7 and 8 reveal how the development of the plot takes a different turn: In the end, the three took the quarrel home with them to Olympus. The other gods took sides, some with one and some with another, and the ill will between them dragged on for a long while. More than long enough, in the world of men, for a child born when the quarrel first began to grow to manhood and become a warrior or a herdsman. But the immortal gods do not know time as mortals know it. Now on the northeast coast of the Aegean Sea, there was a city of men. Troy was its name, a great city surrounded by strong walls, and standing on a hill hard by the shore. The shift in the story’s setting raises new questions for the reader: What does Troy have to do with the wedding feast, Eris’s apple, and the argument among the three goddesses? The author uses the key sentences in paragraphs 7 and 8 to help readers understand how events at the beginning of the story will connect with those at the end. CA-CCSS: CA.RL.6.5 https://apps.studysync.com/#!/core-ela/6/25/instructional-path 2/2.

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