Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Beatrice-Joanna and Tristram try to get through a day that starts with the death of their son, and ends with police brutality, "accidental" impregnation, and the inauguration of a frightening new police presence in the city. And you thought you were having a bad day.
Part One of The Wanting Seed is all about the Exposition. As we follow Beatrice-Joanna and Tristram around on a less-than-ordinary day, we learn almost everything we need to know about the dystopian world they inhabit. As the twelfth and thirteenth chapters wrap up with the news that Beatrice-Joanna is probably pregnant again, and that a brand new Population Police Force has been set upon the city, we're well primed for the novel's Rising Action.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Not-So-Hot Fuzz
As the Population Police crack down on English citizens, Tristram discovers Beatrice-Joanna's pregnancy, and like any good husband, he tries to convince her to induce a miscarriage. When Captain Loosley reveals that the child may be Derek's, Tristram tries to confront Beatrice-Joanna, but gets swept up into a labor protest instead. As Beatrice-Joanna flees to Northern Province, Tristram gets thrown into prison.
Amidst everything that goes on in Part Two of The Wanting Seed, two major factors escalate the tension: (1) Beatrice-Joanna's pregnancy, and (2) the stricter, even more repressive government crackdowns on pregnant women and their menfolk.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Three Men and Some Babies
As crop failures spread worldwide, reports of violent assaults, murders, and cannibalism begin to surface from around the world. Uh oh. As Tristram tries to get out of prison, Beatrice-Joanna gives birth to twins. Before she can find a good place to raise them, she's captured by the Population Police.
We're hit with two major crises in Part Three of The Wanting Seed: (1) the unexpected failure of the global food supply, and (2) Beatrice-Joanna's capture by Captain Loosley and the Population Police. As reports of cannibalism start to trickle in, and Beatrice-Joanna and the twins are discovered, things are looking pretty gloomy for our protagonists.
Falling Action
On the Road Again
As Tristram makes his way north to find Beatrice-Joanna, Captain Loosley and the Population Police bring Beatrice-Joanna and the twins back towards London.
Although things look pretty grim for our protagonists by the end of Part Three, in Part Four of The Wanting Seed, most of that tension evaporates. The failure of the global food shortage doesn't seem to be bothering anyone too much—and why should it, with so much human meat and free love in the open fields to go around? Even Beatrice-Joanna's capture stops being a big deal, because by the time Captain Loosley gets her back to London, procreation has become a good thing again, in the public's eye.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
A Few Good Men (and Women)
Since being tricked into joining the British Army, Tristram has settled in fairly well. He does okay until his superior officers accuse him of rabble rousing, and pack him off to "war."
Wondering why we've circled back for another round of Rising Action? One of the things that makes The Wanting Seed so interesting is that its form and structure mimic the cyclical model of history that Tristram develops over the course of the novel. So, rather than moving in a straight line from the Climax to the Resolution, we're pushed toward another sequence of Rising Action, Climax, and Fall.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
You Can't Handle the Truth!
Shipped off with other British Army soldiers to the front, Tristram is convinced that the whole war is a sham. When trench fighting erupts between Tristram's men and "the enemy," his worst fears are confirmed.
The second major Climax of the novel comes as Tristram realizes that British Army soldiers are being tricked into killing each other off. The sneaky recruitment methods, poor training, and staged "warfare" are all part of the State's new method of population control.
Falling Action
On the Road Again
As the sole survivor of the massacre in the trench, Tristram makes his way back to London. After waiting out the last month of his army contract, he gets himself discharged officially, and lines up a new job and a new apartment.
Tristram's horrifying realization about the "war" doesn't amount to much. Although he swears to the Army Major that he's going to expose the injustice of it all, in the end, Tristram does what everybody else seems to be doing: he adjusts, and gets on with his regular life.
Resolution (Denouement)
Deep Blue Sea
Tristram waits for Beatrice-Joanna at the Brighton seashore, and finds her as she stands there praying for his return. In the end, man, wife, and children are reunited.
It's hard to say whether the novel's ending is meant to be a happy one or not. Sure, Tristram, Beatrice-Joanna, and the twins are all together again, but they're living in a world where cannibalism and mass murder by the State have become the new norm. Will the twins grow up to be cannon fodder, or will it all change again before long?