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Difficulty: MediumPlot Structure and Narrative Devices

Read the following prose extract carefully:

"For three grueling years, the villagers of Kanta suffered under the tyrannical reign of Chief Odo, whose private guard crushed every uprising. Just as the village rebels prepared for a final, desperate confrontation in which their defeat seemed inevitable, a sudden, unprecedented lightning strike ignited the chief's armory, destroying his entire fortress and instantly ending his rule without any effort from the rebels."

Which narrative device is utilized by the author to resolve the central conflict in the passage above?

  1. Deus ex machinaAnswer
  2. B
    Dramatic irony
  3. C
    Climax
  4. D
    Epiphany

Answer

Deus ex machina
Deus ex machina refers to a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. In the passage, the hopeless situation of the rebels is miraculously ended by a sudden lightning strike rather than by their own actions.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the nature of the plot resolution in the prose extract.
The story describes an apparently hopeless conflict resolved suddenly by an unexpected act of nature (a lightning strike destroying the fortress).
Identifying how the conflict is resolved clarifies the structural plot device used by the author.
2
Map the resolution mechanism to established literary terminology.
An unexpected, highly improbable external force or event introduced to untangle a plot difficulty is known as 'deus ex machina'.
The intervention comes outside of the characters' agency or organic narrative progression.

Key Concept

Deus ex machina in narrative plot structure
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Plot Structure and Narrative Devices

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