Quitters Inc.
Stephen King
Conflict
Plot Line
Rising Action - The rising action of the story beings with Morrison finding out what the treatment is, because that's when the tension really begins. Since he doesn't want to hurt his family, he refrains from smoking. He does start making real progress until he gets into a traffic jam in a car with half a pack of cigarettes.
Climax - I think the climax of this story is him giving in and smoking while he's in the traffic jam. This, to me, is the climax because it's what everything was really leading up to, you were almost expecting it to happen and when it happened, the author dragged it out even though it only happened in a couple minutes maximum.
Falling Action - During the falling action, Morrison's wife gets shocked and he is forced to watch. His wife forgives him though, and he's learned his lesson and continues on with his life without smoking. After a little while, Morrison gets a call from Donatti. Donatti tells Morrison about diet pills that he needs to take, and if he doesn't, Donatti threatens to cut off his wife's pinki because he knows this tactic worked the last time.
Resolution - All that really happens in the resolution is Morrison hasn't smoked for a year, so he's basically stopped for good. This is the resolution because everything returns to normal with a couple of changes. Morrison has stopped smoking and him and his wife are doing good, therefore Morrison has reached his goal and the story has resolved.
Morrison
Donatti
Cindy
Foreshadowing
Theme
"hugging his son tightly, realizing what Donatti and his colleagues had so cynically realized before him: love is the most pernicious drug of all. Let the romantics debate its existence. Pragmatics accept and use it"(11).
I think the most compelling aspect of the story is the amount of tension the author put in that leads up to the climax. Throughout the whole rising action, you know that something is going to happen, you just don't quite know what it's going to be. The author drops a few hints that make you assume things that end up being wrong and that kept me on my toes and compelled me to keep reading. Throughout the story, I just kept thinking to myself, "what would I do?" because Morrison is caught in so many situations where he could go either way depending on how strong his will power is in the moment. I like to think that I wouldn't smoke the cigarette in the moment that Morrison does, but I also think that maybe I would give in just as he does. I like how much this story made me think and made me try and guess what was going to happen next. The suspension in the story, I think, made it very worth the read and what definitely makes me recommend it to people who like that sort of story.