INTRODUCTION TO THE HEBREW BIBLE

MODULE 4: SESSION 19: Plot In Biblical Narrative: The Story of Jonah

The plot is an arrangement of characters and events into a meaningful sequence in order to communicate the real meaning of a story. The plot of a narrative invests the story with meaning the conflict within a plot and how the conflict is resolved invests the narrative with its ethical message. Narrative meaning can also be found through plot sequence, or the use of conflict, climax, and resolution to convey a message. The same characters in the same conflict but with different resolutions of the climax can have a different message. However, biblical plots are sometimes different from other plots as they tend to introduces more complex plots within plots. The typical example is the story of Jonah where there are more than one plots, problems and resolutions.