Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : None
Teddy doesn't accurately fit any of the Booker plots. The meat of the story is the philosophical debate between Teddy and Nicholson – not any action that we could break down into different stages. Very few things actually happen in this story: Teddy talks with his family, then talks with Nicholson, and then dies (in most interpretations) at the end. The story is about ideas, not plot; character and not events. One can even argue that the protagonist remains essentially unchanged throughout the entire tale. He certainly teaches, but he neither learns nor overcomes difficulties himself.