Exposition:
-The setting is Tom's 11th story apartment in New York City.
-It is an autumn night.
-Tom is a tall, lean, dark-haired man who is wearing a pullover sweater.
-Tom's wife, Clare, is a slender, pretty with light brown hair.
Rising Action:
-Clare asks Tom to go to a movie with her but Tom wants to stay home and do some work.
-Tom's sheet of paper with all of his most important notes from his job flies out the window and gets stuck on a ledge.
-Tom decides whether or not he should go out and get the paper. His decision is that he has worked too hard to just let the paper go.
-Tom climbs out the window onto the ledge and starts to carefully and slowly walk over to the ledge where the paper is stuck.
-On the way back, he looks down.
-He is too petrified to move and stands there for a couple of moments.
-He takes very small steps back to the window.
-The window shuts and Tom starts to light pieces of paper on fire to try to catch the attention of neighbors.
-Tom makes a decision that the only way to get back into the house is to punch the window and hope that it's hard enough so that he can get through, otherwise he will probably fall backwards onto the busy city streets.
Climax:
-Tom punches the window, and it breaks open.
Falling Action:
-Tom falls through the window.
-He pulls out the yellow piece of paper and sets it on the table underneath a pencil.
-He goes to the closet to get out topcoat and hat so that he can go meet his wife at the movies.
-The pencil rolls off the desk.
-The paper flies through the window.
Resolution:
-Tom laughs and walks out the door.
Point of View:
Third Person Limited Point of View
pg. 9:
He struck his fist on the window ledge. Then he shrugged. Even if his plan were adopted, he told himself, it wouldn't bring him a raise in pay-- not immediately, anyway, or as a direct result. It won't bring me a promotion either, he argued--not of itself.
