Story Skeleton—Alice & Ahab

Story structure relates to the psychological appeal of narrative, that which engages readers and builds in them a sense of anticipation—a desire to know what happens next. This blog series is meant to demonstrate the universality of story structure with plot breakdowns of award-winning and classic novels.

White Whale, White Rabbit

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Moby-Dick have a surprising amount in common, at least in terms of narrative structure. Of course, both also have protagonists chasing after a symbolic white animal. In Ahab’s case, the whale represents vengeance. For Alice, the rabbit represents the unbridled curiosity of youth. 

The structure of both of these novels is exceedingly simple. In fact, the mastery of both is evident in this simplicity. Few authors can pull off a straight-shot trajectory. By this we mean neither novel has a true subplot. Alice moves through a number of episodic encounters, and Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick is given complexity through Ishmael, the famously unreliable narrator—and his friend Queequeg to an extent. But in the end, each protagonist chases their quarry from start to finish without significant relationship arcs or secondary narrative goals. And that’s why we thought it made sense to start off with a side-by-side comparison of these two books.

For most authors, a straight-shot trajectory can result in a shrunken story world that does not reflect the complexity and wonderful messiness of life. But anything can be done well, especially when it’s intentional. The structural complexity that might otherwise seem lacking in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is made up for with rich descriptions, wildly surrealistic landscapes, and childlike poetry. And poetry—plus deeply symbolic parable—are at the heart of Herman Melville’s masterpiece. 

Let’s take a closer look at the mechanics of these two novels, starting with a couple of loglines:

• When young Alice follows a rabbit in a waistcoat down into Wonderland, she must brave the dangers and riddles of mystifying creatures and locales, culminating in an encounter with the decapitation-obsessed Queen of Hearts, or else she may never find her way home.
• After an initial violent encounter with a massive white whale in which he loses a leg, Captain Ahab sets off to hunt Moby Dick and exact his revenge, even if it costs him his life and his crew. 

Narrative Goal

The protagonist in both novels has a clear narrative goal: something they struggle toward over the course of the novel. For Alice, it is the White Rabbit; for Ahab, it’s Moby Dick. 

PLOT POINTS

Stasis

A story’s stasis provides context and shows us the protagonist’s normal life before it all gets knocked sideways. The stasis can also reveal a core impulse that will develop into a narrative goal. However, not all novels begin in stasis. Some start before, some after.

Alice’s stasis is brief. She sits by a riverbank, feeling bored and drowsy. She half-heartedly watches her sister read a book without pictures—a mundanity that doesn’t interest Alice at all. She drifts in and out of her thoughts, wondering about trivial things like whether it would be worth making a daisy chain to pass the time. Here is her underlying motivation: she is bored, and thus wishes for excitement.

In Moby-Dick, the story opens later, just before the threshold or the point of no return. As such, Ahab’s stasis is implied—it’s the time before he lost his leg to Moby Dick, and long before he sets out on his quest for vengeance. 

Inciting Incident

The inciting incident of a novel is the moment when the protagonist’s underlying motivation crystallizes into their narrative goal. It is sometimes referred to as the catalyst because it’s the event that occurs to disrupt the stasis. However, as we will see in other chapters, the catalyst and the inciting incident can be two separate plot points. Note that the inciting incident is the first link in a causal chain that will culminate in the climax.

Alice’s story begins when she sees the White Rabbit. He’s wearing a waistcoat, checking his pocket watch, and muttering about how he’s late. Her curiosity overtakes her, and thus her narrative goal is formed: she will follow this rabbit. Her choice sets the story in motion, as it leads her to the rabbit hole—a portal into Wonderland. This moment is the turning point that pulls her from the stasis of her monotonous everyday life into the whimsical, chaotic adventure ahead.

Ahab’s story begins when he first encounters the notorious whale—note, again, that Ahab’s inciting incident happens prior to the beginning of the novel. Moby Dick has already won the first round, smashing Ahab’s boat, killing many of his crew, and leaving the captain maimed. His narrative goal is simple: he will find this whale, and he will have his revenge.

Point of No Return

A protagonist should end up in a situation where it’s no longer possible to return to life as it once was. Maybe technically they could go back, but emotionally they can’t.

Alice’s point of no return immediately follows her inciting incident. After crawling into a dark hole to find out what the White Rabbit is late for, she falls into Wonderland. Going back isn’t possible. She must see this journey through.

In Moby-Dick, the story begins just before the point of no return. Ahab is getting his boat and crew ready for the big hunt. He crosses the threshold when they set sail. This is an example of an emotional point of no return. Ahab could decide to chill out and give up on this mad quest, but his desire for revenge is too great.

Rising Action

Rising action involves the obstacles a protagonist meets while on the path toward their goal. It consists of a chain of consequences, a series of actions and reactions. As the protagonist struggles and strives toward the goal, they are tested, and through these tests they reveal who they are to the reader. This is a crucial source of character connection.

In every chapter, Alice meets a new obstacle—a puzzle she needs to unravel or characters she must engage with on her way to finding the White Rabbit.

Ahab’s rising action isn’t as easy to define, especially since he’s not the narrator. For most of the book, he’s holed up below deck, leaving the hard work to his men so he can stew on his vengeful anger. As for the crew, they are hunting a whale: the obstacles are time and distance. Consequently, Melville structures the story around a series of meetings between the Pequod and nine other ships, each of which offers fodder for symbolic interpretation. 

All Is Lost? Or a False Victory?

Plot points correspond to emotional turns in the reader. The inciting incident generates the goal, giving us a reason to cheer the protagonist on. The point of no return represents a deeper commitment to the goal, and thus an acceptance of the stakes. Now the reader has a reason to fear the protagonist’s potential failure. Rising action pits the protagonist against external AND internal conflict, which ratchets up the stakes and thus the tension.

The next plot point can go in one of two ways: to an all-is-lost moment or a false victory. Which one it’s going to be depends on whether the story is a tragedy or a comedy—comedy in the old-school Greek dramaturgy sense, not in the humorous sense. In a comic structure, the protagonist will achieve their narrative goal, though they will have to transform in some way first. In a tragedy, the protagonist will meet with failure in the climax, and their transformation will follow—they transform as a result of their failure.

In an all-is-lost moment, the protagonist hits rock bottom—they are brought closest to failure. In a false victory, it seems like everything will be okay… right before it all goes to hell. Either way, the impact on the reader is the same. The emotional volume increases here, such that the climax hits as hard as possible.

Throughout Alice’s journey in Wonderland, her narrative goal has been shifting. She’s still searching for the rabbit, but she’s doing so with decreasing enthusiasm. Wonderland is absurd, frustrating, and even dangerous. This is especially true when she reaches the court of the Queen of Hearts. She has found the White Rabbit at last, but he is absorbed in his duties as a herald and pays her no mind. And now she must contend with the Queen and all her chaos.

Alice’s all-is-lost moment comes during the trial. The Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. The trial is ridiculous: evidence is nonsensical, the witnesses are unreliable, and the rules are arbitrary. Alice initially tries to play along, but her frustration builds as she recognizes the trial’s absurdity and the injustice of the Queen’s behavior.

She can no longer tolerate the madness around her, and this leads to her final transformation. She is done following whimsy through Wonderland, and now she wants to go home.

Moby-Dick, on the other hand, is a tragedy, so Ahab gets a false victory rather than an all-is-lost moment. The crew has searched long and far for the White Whale, and there’s never been any guarantee of finding the beast. It’s a big ocean, after all. The potential failure for Ahab is that they never encounter Moby Dick and his vengeance goes unfulfilled. So the false victory occurs when the crew of the Pequod finally sights the White Whale after months of relentless pursuit. As Ahab beholds the object of his hatred, it seems like the realization of his vengeance quest is at hand.

Climax

The climax answers a question that was asked in the inciting incident: will the protagonist succeed, or will they fail while learning something important?

Alice has realized that what she wanted is not what she needs. It was whimsy, innocence, and curiosity that prompted her to follow the White Rabbit, but Wonderland has taught her some important lessons. The mundane world, with its pictureless books and quiet riverbanks, has an appeal after all in its normalcy and predictability. When she rejects Wonderland internally, her transformation is expressed externally—she grows taller and taller and shouts, “You’re nothing but a pack of cards.” Indeed, in rejecting Wonderland, she has grown up, if just a bit.

Since Moby-Dick is a tragedy, Ahab doesn’t transform before the climax. He forges on with his fatal flaw. He and his crew attack the White Whale, and they lose. The ship is smashed to pieces, and apart from the narrator Ishmael, every last crew member is lost. Ahab’s transformation is a mortal one. Presumably he learns a lesson in defeat, even as he sinks below the waves.

Resolution

In a novel’s resolution, we take a step beyond the causality that connects the inciting incident to the climax. This is where loose ends are tied off and the author leaves us with a final image of the transformed protagonist as well as a closing sentiment. This might also be where the author drops a hint about a sequel.

After Alice shouts at the Queen’s court, the cards swarm her. But the chaotic scene quickly ends and she wakes up on the riverbank and tells her sister about her wild dream. Alice then runs off, and we get a quiet moment of contemplation with her sister in which she imagines Alice as an adult, recounting her whimsical adventure to children. The implication is that Alice’s wonder and imagination may persist even as she grows up.

After Ahab’s death and the destruction of the ship, Ishmael is left floating alone in the vast ocean. He clings to his friend Queequeg's coffin, a symbol of death that becomes his salvation. Days later, he is rescued by the Rachel, a whaling ship still searching for its own lost crew members. The resolution is both somber and contemplative. Ishmael is left to tell the tale of Ahab's destructive obsession and the catastrophic end of the Pequod.

The Arc of Triumph—and Failure

Experiences change us. A character at the end of a story is not the same as they were at the beginning. 

Alice begins her adventure with childlike curiosity—without fear. Over the course of her adventures, she learns that curiosity can lead to exciting discoveries and encounters, but it can also lead to danger. In a sense, this is a seven-year-old’s revelation that the world isn’t as safe as she might have imagined, even if there is much that awaits her discovery. 

Ahab doesn’t have a true arc, but the story isn’t about him, even if he owns the trajectory. Instead, Ishmael bears witness to the destructive consequences of revenge. In other words, Ishmael learns a valuable lesson on Ahab’s behalf. Even more, the reader experiences this arc, since Ishmael’s often slippery narration casts doubt on whether any of his story should be believed in the first place. The story’s conclusion hangs in the air with more questions than answers. Is this, in fact, a story about the perils of revenge, or is it about the ephemeral nature of narrative itself? 

Why Are Moby-Dick and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Classics?

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is random, silly, and fun. What it lacks in narrative complexity it makes up for with rich descriptions and boundless creativity. Even among children’s literature, this is an unusual approach to storytelling—although the sheer randomness of the plot is often cited as a reason some people don’t connect with the book.

Alice’s quest is exceedingly simple: follow the White Rabbit. There’s actually not much causality from one scene to the next. In that sense, the story can be described as anecdotal, which runs afoul of much craft advice. Still, the classic persists, and no doubt the fascination with Alice’s encounters can be credited to Lewis Carroll’s vibrant imagination. 

Moby-Dick is an incredibly complex novel with symbols and themes that scholars still argue over. What’s amazing about this book is that the narrative trajectory is sidelined by its experimental form.

Though there is no story without Ahab, it is the narrator Ishmael’s wide-ranging literary devices, soliloquies, footnotes, and breathtaking poetry that beget the novel’s true appeal. It is less the story itself and more the telling of the tale that makes it worth reading. That, no doubt, is a mark of true mastery in the art of novel writing.

In Summary: The Art of the Straight Shot

Melville’s Moby-Dick and Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, though vastly different in tone and genre, share a surprising commonality in their narrative structures. Both feature protagonists who pursue a singular, symbolic white creature, driving a straightforward trajectory without significant subplots.

Plot as a Series of Emotional Pivots: Plot points are more than just events in a story; they correspond to shifts in the reader's emotions. Each plot point—from the inciting incident to the climax—is crafted to elicit specific emotional responses, connecting readers to the protagonist and making us care about their journey.

An Emotional Hook: The inciting incident disrupts the protagonist's stasis and crystallizes their underlying motivation into a clear narrative goal. This moment hooks readers by generating excitement and curiosity, compelling us to invest emotionally in the story.

Point of No Return: The "point of no return" (also known as the “doorway of no return” or the “threshold”) is a pivotal plot point in which the protagonist makes a decisive choice that irreversibly commits them to the central conflict, making it impossible to return to their former life, whether physically or emotionally. This amplifies the stakes and heightens the reader's emotional investment, as they now share in the protagonist's commitment to the journey ahead.

Rising Tension and Connection: The rising action presents obstacles and challenges that test the protagonist. As they struggle and strive, they reveal their character, and so readers form a stronger emotional connection as we cheer the protagonist onward.

All-Is-Lost Moment Versus False Victory: Approaching the climax, the story reaches a critical emotional staging ground—either an all-is-lost scenario or a false victory. This plot point intensifies emotions like despair or fleeting relief, setting the stage for the ultimate resolution and maximizing the impact of the climax.

The End of the Narrative Bridge: The climax answers the central question posed by the inciting incident: Will the protagonist achieve their goal? Or will they fail while learning an important lesson?

Falling Action: The resolution ties up loose ends and underscores the protagonist's transformation. It leaves the reader with a final emotional impression, whether it's contemplation, satisfaction, catharsis, or even melancholy.

David Griffin Brown is an award-winning short fiction writer and co-author of Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling. He holds a BA in anthropology from UVic and an MFA in creative writing from UBC, and his writing has been published in literary magazines such as the Malahat Review and Grain. In 2022, he was the recipient of a New Artist grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. David founded Darling Axe Editing in 2018, and as part of his Book Broker interview series, he has compiled querying advice from over 100 literary agents. He lives in Victoria, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.