Head Tale

An oldie but a goodie from libraryland's own Jessamyn West, here's a list of the seven core plots in literature I found via a recent Reddit post. 

I remember learning a version of this list in grade nine English that only had four items (which I've put in bold below) but always trying to prove what a genius I was, I came up with “Man vs. Time” as something that wasn't covered by the four on the teacher's list. 

The teacher said that was the same as “Time vs. Nature” but I argued that there was a difference between a character trying to do something before a time bomb went off and a character trying to escape a hurricane. 

According to this list, I wasn't right (or I've come up with the eighth plot – maybe I am a genius after all? ) but I was definitely on the right track in thinking that four wasn't enough to sum up all the permutations. 

1 - [wo]man vs. nature 

2 - [wo]man vs. man 

3 - [wo]man vs. the environment 

4 - [wo]man vs. machines/technology 

5 - [wo]man vs. the supernatural 

6 - [wo]man vs. self 

7 - [wo]man vs. god/religion