The Killings by Andre DubusPlot is defined as "the author's arrangement of incidents in a story is the organizing principle that controls the order of events (Meyer, 64) ." The plot element is heavily used in the short story "The Killings" by Andre Dubus. The plot, which is completely realized in an author's imagination (Meyer,64), offers the audience important information about people, places, and events in the story (Meyer,64). “The Killings” provides a somewhat conventional plot outline, in which the character is confronted with a problem and is then led to the climax, which then leads to the resolution of the story (Meyer, 65). The conventional plot is easy to follow and serves as the basis for films and other forms of fictional entertainment (Meyer,65). This simple but effective plot makes the story easier to follow and understand. The plot of The Killings also includes the use of flashback as a tool to allow the audience to fully understand the characters' backgrounds. This type of organization serves as the basis for the entire story and has the greatest significance in "The Killings". .The Killings is the story of a man named Matt Fowler, whose son Frank is violently killed by his girlfriend's ex-husband. The story goes on to explain how Matt deals with his feelings of revenge, which lead to the killing of Richard Strout, Frank's killer. The story, written by Andre Dubus, uses several key plot factors to make Matt Fowler and Richard Strout's characters seem more human. By focusing heavily on the plot, the reader can easily grasp the humanity of both killers as well as the sympathy for the victims. True understanding of history is based on… half of the paper… work. The resolution of "The Killings" causes dissatisfaction for both the Fowlers and Strout. Strout obviously ends up dead, while the Fowlers are left grieving. The unfortunate turn of events transformed the “vengeful satisfaction from which he suffered into a profound permanent isolation (Kennedy, 97). As a result of Strout's killing, Fowler faced even greater dilemmas concerning his peace of mind and the comfort of his family The isolation given to Fowler in the resolution imposes an even greater physiological conflict than before, and causes Fowler's remaining children to believe that Strout had "left town", exempting himself from the trial. Technically, Fowler won the resolution, since his goal in the story was to kill Strout, however the emotional difficulties present in the resolution allow the reader to think otherwise.