ANALYZING THE PLOT IN “IN THE YEAR 2889” BY JULES VERNE THROUGH SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

“Little though they seem to think of it, the people of this 29th century live continually in fairyland. Surrounded with marvels, they are indifferent to marvels. To them all seems natural. Could they but duly appreciate the refinements of civilization in our day; could they but compare the present with the past, and recognize the advances we have made! How much fairer they would find our modern towns, with populations exceeding 10,000,000 souls; steets 300 feet wide, houses 100 feet high; with a constant temperature in all seasons; and lines of aerial locomotion crossing the sky in all directions!”

Have you seen or read the half of the story above? If you have, then you probably know that they are a piece of short story written by Jules Verne called “In the year 2889”. It is remarkably amazing short story, isn’t it? The only reason why I put them is because my discussion here will be about plot in “In the year 2889” by Jules Verne.

Plot has always been an interesting thing to be discussed. Why? Because Plot is one of the important aspects of narrative. In a narrative, a plot is the sequence of events that make up a story, whether it is told, written, filmed, or sung. The plot is the story, and more specifically, how the story develops, unfolds, and moves in time. Plot has its types, if it is based on event sequences, there is Progressive which the story is going cronologically, and Regressive which is the story offers flashback and foreshadowing. But, I will surely focus on Regressive in a short story by Jules Verne “In the year 2889”.

As I have mentioned above, regressive is one of types of plot if it based on sequence of events, and it offers us to see and analyze if the story comes with flashback or foreshadowing, generally. Flashback means, the story refers to the past, an interruption in a story’s sequence of events. Also, it takes us, as readers, back to an earlier time and shows what already happened in the past. Besides, foreshadowing means the use of clues to suggest what will happen later in the story, foreshadowing creates anticipation for the reader so that he or she will want to read on to learn the outcome of the story.

This short story generally focuses on a wealthy person named Fritz Napoleon Smith who owned a neswpaper company, why did I say “wealthy”? because it can be seen through these sentences: “Fritz Napoleon Smith's innovation galvanized the old newspaper. In the course of a few years the number of subscribers grew to 85,000,000 and Smith's wealth went on growing, till now it reaches the almost unimaginable figure of $10,000,000,000.”

The sentences that come out from the first paragraph said “Little though they seem to think of it, the people of this 29th century live continually in fairyland. Surrounded with marvels, they are indifferent to marvels. To them all seems natural. Could they but appreciate the refinements of civilization in our day; could they but compare the present with the past, and recognize the advances we have made!” they are carried by the narrator, and that first paragraph showed me that its setting is made up in flashback, it can be specificaly known through the clause “the people of this 29th century live continually in fairyland” which helps me generally and the readers specifically to inform about character’s history eventhough the main character has not been mentioned in the first paragraph, yet. It succesfully shows us that narrator could play such an important role in a narrative.

The other evidence that the first paragraph is made up in flashback is when narrator said “If they could but imagine the state of things that once existed when through muddy streets rumbling boxes on wheels, drawn by horses--yes, horses!” it implies that the people of 29th century once used muddy streets rumbling boxes on wheels that are drawn by horses. Also, the other one is, when the narrator was comparing the present with the past, it can be seen when he or she triggered us to think as in the story “Think of the railroads of old, and you will appreciate the pneumatic tubes through which today we travel at 100 miles an hour. Would not our contemporaries prize the telephone and telephote more, had they not forgotten the telegraph?” It detailed the people who are implied in the first paragraph have used the old railroad and now they use the pneumatic tubes. Also, the discussion about the telegraph that they once used, and the usage of telephone that they were using that time. Which they help us, the readers, to understand the character’s thoughts, feelings, and actions through the story that is carried by the narrator.

Foreshadowing. There are a lot oh things that foreshadowing has to offer. We can see it when the narrator still said “He, too, invented the transformer, a more wonderful contrivance still, which takes the living force from the accumulator, and, at the touch of a button...” he said “button” which makes us wondering how can some people can discover then use a button in 29th century.

The other evidence of foreshadowing is when Mr smith could talk and eat breakfast together, face to face, eventhough they are separated by distance which is his wife is in Paris, meanwhile, Mr Smith in America. They are connected to each other by using a great technology which has been discovered by his company. It really helps us to understand that it is not impossible for us to do the same thing in real life. Believe or not, now, we can talk to person who is far away from us, even, we can see their faces as well through such technology we called “video call”. It is another prove that this story offers us foreshadowing, which can predict something in the future or same thing that happens in story that can happen in the future. Sometimes, the reference is hard to find, but it can be simply seen through character’s action or dialogue.

In conclusion, the final part of this short story is closed, which means it has a clear solution, we can see it from the last paragraph of this story “Such, in the year 2889, is the history of one day in the life of the editor of the Earth Chronicle. And the history of that one day is the history of 365 days every year, except leap years, and then of 366 days--for as yet no means has been found of increasing the length of the terrestrial year.” which means, I can see the flashback and and the foreshadowing, that is types of plot if it is based on sequence of events, obviously through the main character's action and dialogue.

Source: ( http://literaryterms.net/plot/ )
( https://www.pinterest.com/lynbrookenglish/flashbacks-foreshadowing-thoughtshot-and-snapshot/ )

ASSYFA OCTAVIYANI ISTIQOMAH

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