In the story condensed milk Give specific details about the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Your response should address each element of plot.

Answer and Explanation:

"Condensed Milk" is a short story by Varlam Shalamov based on his experience as a prisoner at a Gulag - a type concentration camp used by the Soviet Union.

In literature, exposition is the part of a story in which the author sets the stage for what will happen. It is where the theme, characters, conflicts, setting and/or circumstances are laid out. In "Condensed Milk", the exposition takes about three paragraphs. We learn that the main character is a political prisoner. He is sick and starving, as are the other prisoners. According to him, they are all mentally and physically exhausted.

Rising action takes place after the exposition. It usually presents an event or a series of events in a plot that create the condition for conflicts to arise and to be solved. In "Condensed Milk", rising action begins when a prisoner called Shestakov begins to talk to the main character. Shestakov is a different kind of prisoner. He has some privileges, which makes the main character suspicious of him. Shestakov is, all of a sudden, offering the main character the chance to escape the Gulag. The main character tells him he's too hungry to run away, and asks Shestakov to bring him a can of condensed milk. Shestakov agrees.

The climax is the peak moment of a story, when the conflict reaches an exciting level. In "Condensed Milk", the climax takes place when the main character receives two cans of condensed milk from Shestakov. He drinks them while being watched by other prisoners, as if this was too rare a sight to be missed. The main character describes the ecstasy of, for the first time in a very long time, having something sweet and delicious to eat. By the end of this "show", when everyone else has left, the main character tells Shestakov he will not be escaping with him. This is when we learn he had never intended to. He just used Shestakov to get the condensed milk.

Falling action comes after the climax, characterized by a decrease in tension. In this story, it happens when the main character reveals he knew all along Shestakov was setting a trap. That is why he never intended to go with him. He knew he would either end up dead or condemned to even more time as a prisoner. As a matter of fact, that is precisely what happens to the others who try to escape. On the other hand, nothing happens to Shestakov.

Finally, we have the resolution. The end of the story. To close things up, the main character tells us he met Shestakov again, six months later. Shestakov seemed to be offended by what the main character had done, which he did not quite understand. "I mean, after all, two cans of condensed milk aren’t such a big deal." Shestakov seems to feel used by the main character, which is more than a bit ironic, taking into consideration that the main character could have died because of Shestakov.

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