del Castillo, Maria Emilia.

Why didn't I listen to her?

In this essay I will analyze the short story entitled “The consolation blonde” basing myself on the
Russian Formalist schoolars who develop the concept of plot. The definition that Formalists give
for this concept is: the way in which the writer order the different events along the story and the
dimension she/he gives to each one.

This story is about a writer, John, who is nominated for an award but does not win it. To make him
feel better about this terrible situation, the publishing house pays a woman, Cassie, to spend time
with him and help him forget about the award. The main character begins to feel better thanks to
this woman and they have sex after having several drinks in the hotel bar. In the days following
their meeting, John cannot stop thinking about Cassie, so he contacts her again and after several
confessions they begin a love relationship. Everything seemed to be going great until John finds
some emails so he discovers that Cassie had spent that first night with him just for money, this
situation leads him to lose control and he decides to go to the publisher to confirm what he
discovered. After talking to her publisher, Tom, he discovers that Cassie had refused the money that
the publishing house had given her and that her feelings were true, although it was too late since he
had killed her the night before.

Analyzing this sequence of events we can see how, throughout the story, John goes through
emotional ups and downs for which he takes refuge in Cassie who shows him love and transmits
confidence. But at the same time, we can say that the author of the story wanted to emphasize the
loss of control of the main character since the consequence is the murder of Cassie, the person he
loved and trusted.

In conclusion, we can say that the order a writer gives to the events of his stories can show how
important they are for the growth of the different characters and the development of the story. In
this story in particular, placing the revelation of the murder at the end allows us to know what the
author wants us to focus on.