Reading Response 8: Story vs. Plot

According to Burroway, there is a difference between story and plot, in spite of how often they are confused or used interchangeably. From what I gathered, a story is the chronological catalog of events which occur to characters in the novel/play/short story/etc. Plot, on the other hand, is the way in which the narrative unfolds, with flashbacks, dreams, digressions and emotions. Looking at this week's readings through the lens of plot vs. story, I thought that "San Francisco" by Hempel really illustrated the difference between the two. For instance, the story behind "San Francisco" seems to flow as follows: there is an earthquake, during which the narrator discovers her mother is dead. Meanwhile the narrator's sister is at her therapist. When she comes home, she immediately starts asking the narrator for their dead mother's watch. The narrator does not know where the watch is, though her sister does not believe her, and continues badgering her for it. A simple story, one might say, with death causing emotional distress. But if one looks at the plot of the piece, the emotional valence of the words work to make it much more powerful reading. For one, the narrator continues to speak as if she is talking to her mother, whom readers later learn is dead. So we get a sense that the narrator is in mourning, missing her mother and trying to hold on to her memory by acting as if she is still there. Similarly, the action unfolds in both the past and present, as the narrator reminisces to her mother about how easy it was/is to trick her older sister. Even the missing watch is taken out of chronological order, with the narrator speculating where it went even before the reader realizes who wants it so badly. All of these qualities allow the piece to unfold rather like a mystery, drawing the reader in. We want to know why the narrator thinks "it was the tremors" --what tremors, what did they do?-- we want to know who she is talking to, and whether or not she actually knows where the watch is. Plot, then, is the reason we want to read, while the story simply catalogs what we just read.