Plot structure in any novel is an important literary technique that can differ greatly from one novel to the next. While the actual story tells the reader the events that happen to the characters, plot is the technique used to form a timeline for the story, whether the events are placed in chronological order or not. The novels Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coetzee and A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro have plot structures that do not conform to the basic idea of ​​a story in chronological order as time passes, yet their structures are still very different . to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the novel A Pale View of Hills, Ishiguro uses a very unique strategy to tell the story of Etsuko and her life. Instead of expounding the story in the present, he goes back to Etsuko's memory to find her. He structures the plot around his thoughts and memories to convey the story of his life in a way that makes the reader pay close attention to detail to understand where the characters are in time throughout the book. Ishiguro uses Etsuko to structure the novel, but Etsuko cannot necessarily be relied upon. The author uses memory to distort the timeline of events that take place in the novel, making the novel's plot a time-hopping plot and blurring the line between fiction and reality. The beginning of the novel is set in the past, when Etsuko's daughter Niki comes to visit her. “She came to visit me earlier this year, in April, when the days were still cold and drizzly” (Ishiguro 9). The only time Etsuko's memory seems to always be correct is when she is with Niki. In the novel Waiting for the Barbarians, the plot structure differs greatly from that of Ishiguro's work. Instead of going back in time and having the main character, the Magistrate, recount the events of the past, Coetzee structures the novel in a very direct way. Events come to the Magistrate, as well as the reader, as they happen. This gives the reader a tone of mystery and intrigue that doesn't appear as much in A Pale View of Hills. Both authors of these novels use unique strategies to shape the plot. In A Pale View of Hills, Ishiguro uses Etsuko's memory, or lack thereof, to counterbalance the plot and make the reader wonder what is going on in the character's life. “It is possible that my memory of these events has blurred over time, that things did not happen exactly the way they come back to me today” (Ishiguro 41). Ishiguro also begins the novel by telling the reader about the most important event in the main character's life, the suicide of Etsuko's daughter, Keiko. This not only sets the tone for the entire novel, but allows the reader to connect the events of Etsuko's memory with this life-changing and scarring event. “Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; it is often strongly influenced by the circumstances in which it is remembered, and no doubt this applies to some of the memories I have collected here” (Ishiguro 156). Ishiguro also uses plot structure to repeat significant events in Etsuko's life. “It was towards the beginning of summer – I was now in the third or fourth month of pregnancy – when I first saw that big American car, white and battered, bumping its way across the waste land towards the river. It was late in the evening, and the sun setting behind the cottage shone for a moment against the metal” (Ishiguro 12). Later in the novel, Etsuko,.