comment on structure

Sold on a Monday is divided into forty-three chapters and split into three parts, each representing an escalation of McMorris’s plot.

Through the first section of the novel, we are introduced to most of the plot’s main characters and their backgrounds. With the final line of the section, we are introduced to the novel’s central conflict, the selling of the Dillard children. The second section allows the conflict to unfold. We learn Geraldine’s reasons for selling her children and we witness Ellis’s discovery of their whereabouts. The section closes upon the realization that Calvin is not with the Millstones, which leads into the third and final section. In this section, the mission to retrieve the children picks up steam, leading into the climax and eventual denouement of the novel, in which they are returned to their mother.