Plot and structure

In this section we will help you identify the elements of the plot and how “The Whipping Boy” is structured. By plot, we understand a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story, and these events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence.

Elements of the plot

Every plot usually has about five elements, but not necessarily. In this short story, these are structured in a logical order:

Exposition: Events are set in South East America on a slave plantation at the end of the American Civil War, around 1864-1865. The plot begins with the three black slaves, two brothers and a woman, find out that slavery has been abolished: “It was the day after the boy from the Union had come to the farm to let the slaves know they were freemen.” (l. 5)

Rising action: The slaves decide to ...