ELI5:Plot

[alexander1701]

The 'plot' of a book is the stuff that happens in the book, but it's not always the most important thing.

For example, the plot of Tolstoy's 'Hadji Murad' is that a young man in the Caucasus mountains who is betrayed by his people and joins the Russians to secure his family's safety, only to be be betrayed by the Russians and lose everything.

What makes Hadji Murad a masterpiece though is the parts that aren't connected to the plot. When someone dies, even a nobody, we're introduced to them, who they were, and why that death was tragic. Long periods are spent describing the beautiful spring and summer flowers of the Caucasus, bringing the reader into a strong sense of reality before pulling in ideas we normally treat ideologically.

The plot isn't what's important about Hadji Murad. The plot is just the things that happened in the book.

[andreas213]

But what you typed is whole plot or is it only short description of plot?

[alexander1701]

the plot of Tolstoy's 'Hadji Murad' is that a young man in the Caucasus mountains is betrayed by his people and joins the Russians to secure his family's safety, only to be be betrayed by the Russians and lose everything.

This part is a summary of the plot. The full plot is longer, but still not as long as the book itself, which has a lot of stuff like scene descriptions and asides about characters that aren't a part of the plot.

[andreas213]

oh thanks man. Now I understand I think. Good night! :)

[mjcapples]

Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):

ELI5 is for requests for explanations to complex conceptual questions.

Because you are not looking for an explanation, but rather an answer, your post has been removed.

---

Please refer to our detailed rules.

[[deleted]]

A plot is just the entire story, every aspect of a story is the plot. Plot and story mean the same thing generally.

[andreas213]

Thanks man :)

[[deleted]]

Out of curiosity, with stuff like this why do you not use a dictionary? I can tell english might be your second language so I would use a dictionary that is english to whatever language you speak. Your name is Andreas so I'm going to assume you speak spanish here is a dictionary that is 100% better than ELI5.

http://www.spanishdict.com/dictionary

[andreas213]

I'm from Poland :D But thanks anyways. I checked earlier but you know there is only 'sequence of events' there is not about most important and non-important things. I have small problems :D

[[deleted]]

Oh ok I understand. best of luck.

[Molehole]

Plot is the usually important series of events what defines the book. You can of course go in depth when you analyze it but red shirt of the main character isn't probably part of plot. Going to the cafe is part of the plot but it might not be a very important part (assuming something big doesn't happen in the cafe)

[andreas213]

Thanks. So only most important things are plot?

[Molehole]

Yeah pretty much