A Story Frames Plot Analysis of UNBREAKABLE

 

In last week's BLOG, I recommended using the picture book Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American Incarceration Camp to bridge the gap between narrative and non-fiction by exploring its rich back matter.  This week, I'll give a brief summary of the book using Storyboard elements from my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy. For more information about Story Frames, go HERE or visit Brookes Publishing.

Read the book to your students before discussing the plot and have them take notes or make quick sketches about what is happening in the story. Even older students enjoy listening to stories, and using sketches is a great way to introduce struggling writers to note-taking. In Chapter 6 of Story Frames, "From Speaking to Writing: Sentences, Paragraphs, and Stories," I share a Quick Draw strategy based upon Ukrainetz's 1998 method for "picture noting." Basically, students listen to a story and draw sketches of what is happening in the plot. For Story Frames, we then use those sketches to fill out a storyboard and discuss plot elements. The storyboard can then be used to retell the story orally or to write a summary. Ukrainetz later adapted her strategy to note-taking for non-fiction. 

Ukrainetz, T. (1998). Stickwriting stories: A quick and easy narrative representation strategy. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 29, 197-206. 

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2019). Sketch and speak: An expository intervention using note-taking and oral practice for children with language-related learning disabilities. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 50, 53-70.  

Unbreakable Plot Summary
BEGINNING:
1. Ordinary World - Min and his family live in San Pedro, California, where his father sells fruits and vegetables. Min enjoys collecting rocks as he walks home from school. 
2. Call and Response - FBI agents come to the home and accuse Mr. Tonai of being a spy because he gave money to family members in Japan.
3. Mentors, Guides, and Gifts - In December of 1941, agents return and take Mr. Tonai away. Before he leaves, he gives Min a smooth gray stone "for strength."
4. Crossing - People of Japanese descent are forced to leave their homes. Min, his mother, and siblings are taken to Santa Anita Park.
MIDDLE: 
5. New World - Their new home is a horse stall at the racetrack with straw mattresses.
6. Problems, Prizes, and Plans - Guards patrol the racetrack, and no one is able to leave. 
7. Midpoint Attempt - The family is hopeful when they are told they are being moved to Granada, Colorado, but Camp Amache turns out to be a dry desert. Min makes furniture from scrap wood to lift his mother's spirits. They receive letters from Mr. Tonai, who is imprisoned elsewhere. Min clutches the stone and thinks of his father.
8. Chase and Escape - In March of 1944, Min sees a man outside the barracks and runs to greet him. It's his father who has joined them at Amache. He has been released from prison.
END:
9. Downtime - Mr. Tonai has collected stones from every prison where he was incarcerated. He shows them to Min and talks about the strength and beauty he has found. 
10. Death and Transformation - They use the rock collection to create a beautiful design outside of their barracks. They have transformed something ugly into something beautiful.
11. Climax: The Final Test - In October of 1945, the Tonai family is finally released from the camp. At first, Min worries that they won't be accepted or that they could be incarcerated again. Min lets go of the stone and holds his parents' hands "for strength," knowing that they will make things better. 
12. Final Reward - (In the co-author's note) As an adult, Min founded the Amache Historical Society. In 2015, Emperor Akihito awarded Min with a medal for "promoting friendly relations and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States."

A Different Kind of Hero's Journey

My Story Frames analysis is based on The Hero's Journey, as described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In Western culture, we are accustomed to Hero stories where an underdog fights against extreme odds to emerge victorious over a bigger, stronger opponent, but that's not how real life works for most of us. Sometimes heroes make their mark by enduring extreme hardship through resourcefulness (making furniture from scraps) and by creating beauty in the midst of adversity (crafting art from stones). They try to create a better world in ways both big and small. That is the story of Min Tonai, and it is inspiring because these are things each of us can do every day - create beauty and hope wherever we find ourselves.

Next week, we will use Unbreakable to explore the difference between phrases and clauses.

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SCREENWRITING AND NOVEL PLOTTING - THE INSPIRATION BEHIND STORY FRAMES

STORY FRAMES is a twelve-step story analysis method that I created based upon my experiences as both an author of fiction and a speech-language pathologist (SLP) working with struggling students in the public schools in grades K-12. As I observed the difficulties my students faced with reading, writing, and understanding stories, I set out to create a narrative analysis method that would bring stories to life and provide young people with tools to create exciting tales of their own.

Creative writing courses along with numerous books on the subject of story plotting for authors and screenwriters gave me the inspiration to combine the way teachers look at story structure with the way that professional writers plot their stories.  Reading teachers and SLPs frequently use the Story Grammar elements outlined by Stein and Glenn (1979) to teach story structure to students:

    1. Setting

    2. Initiating Event

    3. Internal Response

    4. Attempt

    5. Consequence

    6. Reaction

 English Teachers tend to draw upon tools such as Freytag's Pyramid: 

1. Exposition
2. Rising Action
3. Climax
4. Falling Action
5. Resolution

The STORY FRAMES method is broken down into twelve basic elements or Story Frames based on the Hero's Journey as originally discussed by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces and later adapted for screenwriters and novelists by Christopher Vogler in The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (Now in its 25th year). Other books on story plotting that influenced STORY FRAMES are found at the end of this post. I use the term "Hero's" Journey loosely. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and their adventures don’t have to be epic odysseys to be life-changing. Stories do not necessarily contain all of the components outlined, and they don’t always occur in the order given below. In longer stories, many of the elements are repeated. The purpose of this analysis is to help students and other writers to recognize what is going on in stories and to begin to think like authors.

The twelve elements of STORY FRAMES include:

BEGINNING

1. Ordinary World

2. Call and Response

3. Mentors, Guides, and Gifts

4. Crossing

MIDDLE

5. New World

6. Problems, Prizes, and Plans

7. Midpoint Attempt

8. Downtime

END

9. Chase and Escape

10. Death and Transformation

11. Climax: The Final Test

12. Final Reward

To find out more about my story analysis method, visit the STORY FRAMES tab on this blog. Check out my fiction novels HERE.

There are many excellent books that have influenced my plotting techniques. For further reading I recommend:

1. The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
2. Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
3. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

4. Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc by Dara Marks

5. First Draft in 30 Days: A Novel Writer's System for Building A Complete and Cohesive Manuscript by         Karen S. Wiesner

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