Structure

The short story “The World Ending in Fire” by Jan Carson has a non-chronological plot structure. The narrator tells the story of Mrs Agnew, her friend Lyndsey’s mother, who lived in a paddling pool in the living room for the last three years of her life. 

The narrator recounts different events from her childhood that center around Mrs Agnew without telling them in chronological order. This structure means that the readers must work to piece together various bits of information as well as wait for important revelations to be made by the narrator in order to understand what the story is about.

The story begins with the narrator’s description of Mrs Agnew: “Lyndsey’s mother was no better than mine. She never left the living room. She slept there and didn’t even shift when she needed to use the toilet” (ll. 1-2). The narrator...