How Does Story Structure Contribute to the Meaning of a Work?

The basic structure of any written work determines its meaning as well as its effect on the reader to a large extent. Depending upon the nature of the content and what meaning it will convey, an author is likely to choose one specific structure and stick to it throughout the work. Stories, like all the other forms of written works, also have various structures in which they can be written. The structure of a story has a huge role concerning the meaning of the narrative being delivered since the specific type of story structure contributes properly to the meaning and its development throughout the tale.

How a structure can contribute to the meaning of specific genres of stories are as follows:

Starting with Climax Contributes to the Suspense

If any narrative follows such a pattern where the initial paragraphs of the content are describing a scene or event that should have been in the climax part or somewhere else in the middle of the tale, the reader automatically judges the meaning as something that needs to be worked out to end up the suspense. The structure in which the story starts with a climax gives more meaningfulness to the content especially if the narrative is based on a crime or horror theme.

The Smooth Progression of the Structure Moves the Meaning and The Plot Forward

If a story structure moves subtly from the descriptions in the beginning to the climax in the middle and the dénouement in the end, the meaning of the content keeps on getting clearer and easier for the reader to understand. On the other hand, if there is no proper structure of the plot, the audience hardly gets a vague notion of what the content is all about.

What is Story Structure?

Structure of a narrative is the way in which the story is organized. It is the fundamental framework of the tale. A story, whether it is a short story, a fictional work or a nonfiction one, must be organized according to some structure. The content of the narrative describes the structure to be adopted by the writer. The structure of any narrative has four important components i.e., plot, setting, character, and theme. While writing any story, these four components must be cared for. Given below is a detailed explanation of each of these components:

Plot

A plot is an important component of a story's structure. It is used to describe the events that make up the narrative as a whole. These events are related to each other in a pattern or a sequence. The complete story depends upon the sequence of events in the plot.

Setting

The setting of a story depends upon the plot. The settings include the environment in which the event or accident took place. The settings of the story also include the geographical location regarding where the incident occurred, the weather of the region, and time, etc.

Character

The third most important component of a story structure is the characters. A character is any person, animal, or figure, around which the narrative revolves. Characters are essential for a good narrative, most accidents are built around one main character but in a story, there is no limit for characters.

Theme

The theme of a story is the idea or the main point that the author is trying to convey. It is also called the central idea of the content. The theme depends upon the plot and a theme that is contrary to the plot may confuse the reader. The theme of the story is also related to the background information, the introduction of characters, etc.