Tom Clancy Believable Plots Essays - Ryanverse,

Tom Clancy: Believable Plots There are many fictional books written to be enjoyed for their contents. However, the interest of the reader in the contents of a book is sometimes affected by the realism with which the plot is introduced. Tom Clancy is an author of many books concerning the military. He is one of the most outstanding authors for writing fictional novels to do with military. His novels The Hunt for Red October and The Cardinal of The Kremlin provide insights which will capture the imagination of many readers. Using historical facts, references to real military hardware and believable characters, Tom Clancy is able to develop believable plots. Tom Clancy's insight into history allowed him to write a very realistic and therefore believable plot. His use of historical events which actually took place and were incorporated into his stories allowed him to enhance motives for the fictional conflict. Many people who lost trust and belief in the Communist system defected to the United States and other countries. Through use of historical facts such as defection in The Hunt for Red October (THRO), Clancy is able to advance his plot. Defections for political reasons happened quite often during the Cold War. There were many defections in history starting back in World War II when famous people like Albert Einstein defected to the use because the Germans discriminated again him being Jewish (pg. 124-5, Vol. 9 Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia). The more recent occurance of defection to the US of a high ranking deputy chief of staff del Pi?o D?az happened in 1987 (pg. 24, "A flight to freedom"). Ramius was the main character in the novel who decided to defect. The character helps Clancy to develop reasons for which such a high ranking commander would defect and later cause conflict to occur between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The use of historical facts common during the Cold War was defection which made Communism infamous and Tom Clancy famous for the believable plot developed. Similarly in TCTK Clancy also uses historical facts to enhance his plot making it believable. Using a historical fact, Clancy shows how cruel the Communist system is with no respect for the humans but only for political power. The landing of a German teenager, Mathias Rust, inside the Red Square and his prosecution is brilliantly used to illustrate the KGB's way of thinking (pp. 226-7, TCTK). In June 1987 a German teenager landed in the Red Square in Soviet Union. He somehow managed to bypass sophisticated air defence systems and causing several bureaucrats to be fired by the Soviet Politburo (p. 24, "Destination Red Square"). The historical fact gave Tom Clancy the ground to make the Communist bureaucrats' characters more sensitive to treason for the fear of losing their position and therefore their power. Tom Clancy exploits the fear of the Communists to make them harder to infiltrate. The difficulty infiltrating the Soviet government is precisely what the author wanted and makes his plot more interesting by making it more complex. The historical facts are not the only way in which believable plot is introduced. The use of realistic characters allows the reader to believe in whatever outcome realism will cause. In THRO the astonishment which Ramius feels through his thoughts being revealed by the author are all realistic. They sound like an average person's reactions to a situation. "They know our name, Ramius was thinking, they know our name! How can this be? They knew where to find us--exactly! How? What can the Americans have? How long has the Los Angeles been trailing us? Decide--you must decide!" (pg. 248, THRO) Ramius wants to defect from Soviet Union and on one of his missions he disobeys orders. Nobody knew about his decision, not even the Americans to whom he wanted to defect. When Ramius received a message from one of the American submarines and mentions his submarine's name, Red October, he was astonished because Americans were not supposed to know about his wish to defect. It is only believable that a person who would not be suspected to know something would be surprised the way Ramius was. The circumstance that makes the entire event more believable is that Ramius also questions American intentions. He does not just decide right away that he will follow their suggestions. It is only after a long consideration that Ramius decided to follow American instructions. Ramius' character is developed in a way that through his conscious decisions Clancy is able to show that Ramius is like a real person. Through