Structure

The short story “How the Nurse Feels” by Greg Changnon revolves around the inner conflict of the main character Tess—a teenage girl who cannot connect with her character in a school play until she experiences real-life loss.

The story follows a traditional plot structure— exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. However, the narrative is more focused on the character’s psychology than on the action of the plot.

Title

The title of the story—“How the Nurse Feels”—is initially intriguing and may lead readers to assume that the plot revolves around a medical nurse. Upon reading the story, readers find out...

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Beginning

The short story begins in media res (in the middle of events) as the narrator struggles to understand the character she plays: "I play the Nurse but she’s a mystery to me. The week before the show opens, we rehearse in full...

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Middle

The middle of the short story builds on two parallel issues—Tess trying to understand her role and the disappearance of Tiger De Soto, a student who has a minor role in the play.

Tess needs to call Tiger and inform him that rehearsals have been postponed. Through dialogue and flashback, we find out that Tess is attracted to Tiger:

Then his mouth turned into a strange, lazy smile that made me feel like I didn’t need to hide anything. ‘I can’t even see you,’ he said and I got a twist in my stomach that has yet to work itself out. (ll. 42-45)

I can feel the conversation ending so I ask, ‘Hey, where’d you get the name Tiger?’
‘When I was a baby.’ (ll. 59-62)

The plot develops as the following day Tess finds out Tiger has gone missing.

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Ending

The ending of the short story includes a brief falling action in which we see the protagonist alone in the theater hall, thinking about her lines.

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