Structure and Plot
The book consists of twelve chapters, the first one set exactly a year after the events of and introducing the narrative proper. The following eleven chapters happen in a single day and follow the Consul chronologically, starting early on the morning of the Day of the dead with the return of his wife, Yvonne, who left him the year before, to his violent death at the end of the day.
Read more about this topic: Under The Volcano
Famous quotes containing the words structure and, structure and/or plot:
“One theme links together these new proposals for family policythe idea that the family is exceedingly durable. Changes in structure and function and individual roles are not to be confused with the collapse of the family. Families remain more important in the lives of children than other institutions. Family ties are stronger and more vital than many of us imagine in the perennial atmosphere of crisis surrounding the subject.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“It is difficult even to choose the adjective
For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.
The great structure has become a minor house.
No turban walks across the lessened floors.
The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.”
—Wallace Stevens (18791955)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)