You are probably used to thinking of the words “story” and “plot” as interchangeable, but it is important to distinguish between these terms. The story in a literary text is what happens, while the plot is how the author chooses to structure that story. The story of The Odyssey, for example, is that of a general in the Greek army who wins a war against Troy and spends the next ten years trying to get home to Ithaca, experiencing many adventures along the way, including a battle with the Cyclops. The plot of The Odyssey, however, is far more complex. It begins when a council of the Greek gods determines the fate of Odysseus, who is already many years into his journey home; from there, the reader meets Odysseus’s nearly grown son and we see what life is like in Ithaca without Odysseus. Only then do we get the stories, told in flashback, of Odysseus’s adventures. The story is not told chronologically or linearly. When analyzing literature, remember that authors can present a story in any manner they wish, and you always ask yourself why the events of the story unfold the way that they do. In the case of The Odyssey, you might draw the conclusion that beginning with the council of the gods demonstrates the primary role the gods played in Greek culture and illustrates their overwhelming power over mortal lives.

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The key to every plot is conflict. This conflict is generally summarized as a struggle between a protagonist and an antagonist, but it doesn’t have to be limited to a conflict between two characters. The main types of conflicts are: