The Linear Model

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“Such narratives comprise plot-integrating metaphors which depict life as a journey, a process of life-long learning, the striving for perfection, a pilgrimage, and the like” (Brockmeier, 2000, pg. 62).

The linear model is one that follows chronological time. There is only one past, one present, one future, and each one flows into the next. This flow, though, means that significance can never be prescribed to moments; it is no longer a lived life but a happening life. However, as autobiographical time is usually separated from chronological time, “the distinction between plot (fabula) and story (sjuzet) is useful because it makes clear that even the supposedly given chronology of a life is always already a story, a highly selective reconfiguration” (Brockmeier, 2000, p. 63). An example of the linear model that does not strictly follow chronological time is presented in “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges. The narrator, Yu Tsun rationalizes that a future was already decided by fate, and thus, he had no other choice than to kill Albert. Yu Tsun, then, favours the linear model and follows chronological time, as he only sees one direct trajectory to one future. This can be seen in temporal imagery related to him and his careful calculations of time—highlighted in blue on the attached document.