Rising Action
Rising action is a series of events following the exposition that builds suspense, develops the characters and conflict(s), and leads towards the eventual conflict. If that seems like a vague definition, think of a well-known story, like Cinderella. In the beginning of Cinderella, you find out that her mom has died and her dad has remarried a woman who has two other daughters. The exposition also tells you that her dad soon dies, and then you see the conflict – the stepmother turns her into servant and she has no freedom to find her happiness.
Rising action is the series of events between her father’s death and the clock striking midnight at the ball. It’s the gradually growing suspense as Cinderella risks everything to meet her prince. It the stuff that makes you turn pages, wanting to know what eventually happens.
“Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier has a very simple plot.
- Lizabeth is growing up poor in a rural town in Maryland (Exposition)
- She is “caged” by poverty and by being black. (Conflict)
- She and her brother and their friends look for fun on a summer day. For entertainment, they bother one of their neighbors, Miss Lottie, and irritate her by knocking a few heads off her beautiful marigolds.
- Lizabeth hears her father crying to her mother about not having work, not having a way to take care of the family.
- Lizabeth’s fathers’ sorrow affects Lizabeth deeply, and, looking for a way to release her pain, Lizabeth goes at night to Miss Lottie’s house and destroys all the marigolds.
The rising action is #’s 3 and 4, right up until Lizabeth destroys the marigolds.