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 : Tragedy
Anticipation Stage
Christmas runs away from the McEacherns, longing for freedom.
Christmas leaves this repressive family because they will not nurture his search for identity. He longs for companionship, sex, and fun – a normal teenage life that he cannot get in this household. He also wants to come to some sense of harmony with himself and to resolve his racial identity issues.
Dream Stage
After running away from the McEacherns, Christmas drifts from town to town, trying to find himself and his true racial identity.
Christmas experiments with his racial identity during this time, alternating between passing as white and black depending on which woman he's sleeping with and which town he's in at the time. He's almost trying on different identities, trying to see which one fits.
Frustration Stage
Miss Burden tries pressuring Christmas into becoming more religious and into being an ambassador to the black community.
Miss Burden's attempts to "reform" Christmas by turning him into a devout black activist only alienate and confuse him further. While he's uncomfortable in white society, he seems totally unwilling to give up his position "passing" as a white man, and the idea of helping black people seems disgusting to him. This inability to reconcile his simultaneous desire for and hatred of both whiteness and blackness leads him to want to kill Joanna.
Nightmare Stage
Christmas murders Joanna Burden.
If Christmas's goal in life was to find himself, and to discover a place where he could live in peace, then the murder he commits actually gets him the exact opposite of what he wants. Rather than finding a place to settle, Christmas is now doomed to repeat what he has done his entire life – run away.
Destruction
Percy Grimm shoots and castrates Christmas.
Christmas's literal destruction is tragic because it's an act of racial hatred, ignorance, and fear. But it's also tragic since he has never actually realized anything about his racial identity. He has spent his entire life shutting people out and refusing to bond with anyone. He dies socially isolated and clueless about himself, one of the greatest tragedies possible.