Exploring Plot in Out and Out

Out and Out, by Latifa Ayad, can be found here: https://pen.org/out-and-out/

We are told that the basic structure of plot is beginning, middle and end, with a climax, which occurs somewhere in the middle. But plot, good plot anyways, is much more complex than that. Good plot contains many twists and turns, some good, some bad, some worse. Good plot is balanced with good characterization and believable action. Writing a good plot can sometimes be challenging, either because you don't know where you want the plot to go, or because you know where the story needs to go, but you don't know how to believably get a character to that point.

But what happens to plot in very short stories? Oftentimes plot is condensed, and sometimes parts of plot we normally see are left out.

In Out and Out by Latifa Ayad, we get a classic beginning to a story- the main character and her father are walking along the beach. We get the conflict- the main character and her father are Muslim, and they are looking for a beach that doesn't have topless women. There are none. The main character struggles internally with her embarrassment at being covered from head to toe while surrounded by so many naked women. We also get some characterization. We know that the father is conservative, he loves his religion, he is scared of losing his daughter, he escaped from Libya to Spain and that he moved to Florida. We learn that the main character is fascinated by the beach, by the nakedness of the women, and that she wants to feel the sand and the water against her skin too.

There isn't a clear climax in this story. It could be the moment the topless women come over to the main character and her father drags her out of the water. It could be the very last sentence, when the main character strips and finally wades in the water on the beach. But if that were the case, the climax and ending would be the same. We also don't get a whole lot of characterization. We don't get the journey from the main character being afraid of going to the beach fully clothed, to her deciding to strip down and go to the beach in her underwear. We don't get that internal struggle or what makes her suddenly take that leap. It just happens. This makes the ending surprising for the reader, but we also can't fully empathize with her, because we don't fully understand why she does what she does except for that she feels embarrassed by her wardrobe and she wants to the feel the water on her skin. The actions of the character are believable, but we don't get the why. Is this explanation necessary? For me, I think it is, because I couldn't fully connect with the character, but I think the answer to that question is different from person to person.

If this story were twice as long, it might either be more enlightening, or more boring. I think an explanation of why the main character wants to feel the water and sand on her skin would characterize her better and make the reader feel closer to her, but I also think the explanation might take away from the surprising ending. I was honestly a little bored with this story because I felt I couldn't fully connect with the main character, so I hope a longer story that better delved into the mind of the main character would help me sympathize with her a bit more and understand her actions.

It is possible that the author of this story could have made something worse happen to the main character, to create more tension, but I don't think it is necessary. What I think is necessary is more insight into how this character thinks. Why she feels the way she does about her wardrobe and moreover, her religion. What makes her makes her act the way she does in the end of this story? That's what I wanted to know and I think that is what ultimately would have created a more impactful plot for this story.