All narratives contain events that authors “shape into the form then encountered by readers” (Stevenson, 2010, p. 120). Effectively, narrative structure is the order in which an author decides to reveal information to a reader. The difference between what happened and how it is told depends on the author’s intentions and their structural and technical decisions (Stevenson, 2010).
‘The last question’ is a short story by Isaac Asimov (1974) that explores humanity throughout time and space as they advance a technology called Multivac, a “self-adjusting and self-correcting” computer who develops AI over time (p. 157). This mini-essay fits Freytag’s dramatic arc to and explores the narrative structure of ‘The last question’.
Freytag’s Dramatic Arc
‘The last question’ fits into Freytag’s version of the dramatic arc, highlighting its strong narrative structure. Freytag’s dramatic arc (Freytag & MacEwan, 1960) primarily suggests there are three processes in a story: first, the narrator establishes context and ‘sets the scene’; secondly, plot progression through “the movement of characters across time and space” (Boyd et al., 2020, p. 1); and, finally, the central conflict finding some type of resolution.
‘The last question’ fits into Freytag’s dramatic structure neatly, which allows for a strong dramatic arc in a story that does not focus solely on characters. The story begins by explaining the concept of the Multivac and introducing the characters who originally ask the last question, and why they do so. It then progresses to, literally, follow characters across time and space, as each scene introduces new characters at a new point of time in the AC’s development.
Finally, the story allows the last question to be resolved and hints at the idea of renewal and repetition: “And AC said, ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT!’” (Asimov, 1974, p. 169). This strong dramatic structure, alongside the use of linear narrative structure, keeps the story moving at a fast pace than introduces information consistently until the climax.
Linear Narrative Structures
‘The last question’ utilises a linear narrative structure to keep readers focussed on the main narrative arc. Chatman (1978) explains that structure brings about the narrative of scenes:
“the narrative is a sequential composite. . .the events in a true narrative. . . come on the scene as already ordered” (p. 21).
This is especially true in Asimov’s ‘The last question’. Every scene of the story is clearly bound within its moment of the story—in no way could one scene be moved forward or backward without changing the narrative of the story.
The story starts at “a time when humanity first stepped into the light” (Asimov, 1974, p. 157) and progresses linearly to an unknown point in time wherein “there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question” (p. 169). The lack of flashbacks and flashforwards allows the story to unfold uninterrupted from beginning to end.
Readers “respond with an interpretation” (Chatman, 1978, p. 28) by assuming how a character’s life played out rather than wanting the text to tell them explicitly. In ‘The last question’, readers are not as interested in the minute details of each character’s past and future, which eliminates the need for contextual flashbacks and flashforwards; instead, the linear narrative structure encourages readers to experience the narrative from the Multivac’s point of view as it tries to find the answer to the last question.
Structural Order
‘The last question’ uses strong structural ordering to introduce elements of the story to build a shared knowledge allowing the narrative to unfold. The narrative—and jargon—of ‘The last question’ can be confusing; for example, a sentence from the last page of the story states that:
“Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.”(Asimov, 1974, p. 170)
Like most writers, Asimov wants to “reveal [to readers] something of consequence about the nature of their shared world” (Gibson, 2009, p. 467). However, without shared knowledge of the world and its elements, readers of a story would never be able to understand these consequences.
‘The last question’ adds new context, jargon, and information within each scene of the story, gradually progressing the shared knowledge held between the author and reader until the readers can fully understand the ending scene. This slow building of knowledge through expert narrative structure allows readers to fully grasp the concept of an all-powerful AC Asimov presents at the end of the story.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ‘The last question’ is a strong example of Freytag’s dramatic structure. Asimov’s uses linear narrative structure to progress the narrative without relying on flashbacks or flashforwards, which keeps the readers focussed on the main conflict. Strong structural ordering allows the author to build shared knowledge with the readers that the story is dependent on to execute its narrative.
Works Cited
Asimov, I. (1974). The last question. In I. Asimov (Ed.), The Best of Isaac Asimov, pp. 157-170.
Boyd, R. L., Blackburn, K. G., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2020). The narrative arc: Revealing core narrative structures through text analysis. Science Advances, 6(32), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba2196
Chatman, S. B. (1978). Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Cornell University Press.
Freytag, G., & MacEwan, E. J. (1960). Technique of drama: An exposition of dramatic composition and art; An authorized translation from the 6th German edition. Scholarly Press.
Gibson, J. Literature and knowledge. In Richard, E., (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy and literature, pp. 467-485. Oxford University Press.
Stevenson, R. (2010). Narrative structure and technique. In Dermot, C. (Ed.), The Edinburgh introduction to studying English literature. Edinburgh University Press.