INTRODUCTION.
A turning point is basically a specific or significant moment when something starts to change or vary. For instance, Historians will be correct to claim that Rosa Park's famous bus protest was actually a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Actually, drawing from historical antecedents, it is very easy to mark various turning points. There are several ways you can put or define a turning point. Despite these multiple definitions, the essence or meaning of what a turning point is remains the same and unchanged. Let us look at some clear cut definitions and examples of a turning point.
In literary parlance, a turning point or climax is that point of the highest tension in any narrative; it is both the most exciting and revealing part of a story. It usually elicits the rising action into falling action, just before the story is resolved to enable it to reach its conclusion. From the start of any narrative, all the actions rise up to the turning point, where pending questions may be answered, secrets revealed, conflicts resolved, and everything else begins to come to a close finally. In essence, it is a central and key narrative device for authors of all genres, whether fiction or real.
EXAMPLES OF TURNING POINTS.
This is an excerpt from the passage of a story, how does it fare as an example of a turning point? Reserve your response until after you have gone through it:
The policeman stared at and peered over the photos repeatedly, just like she had claimed from the onset and every night ever since they found the woman's body. Then, the woman suddenly asked herself, ' What am I really missing here?' For something certainly looked and felt off. What is it? She nonetheless picked up the small evidence bag that contained the woman's wedding ring in it. On the inner surface of the ring that envelopes the skin was the inscription: ' September 20, 1998.' She put down the ring and gasped. Oh! The woman was actually murdered on her anniversary! What a coincidence, or is it? The policeman suddenly grabbed her by the coat and together, they ran out the door. She now knew who the killer was.
This short excerpt is the turning point to a larger crime story. In it, the policeman has a sort of revealing idea that will eventually lead to the murderer's capture and hence the conclusion of the story too.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A TURNING POINT.
It is certainly an important part of any story because it brings out the final action which is necessary for the narrative to come to an end. That is basically what the audience has been patiently waiting for, and it usually leads to the resolution of any conflict. Without turning points, narratives are bound to be incomplete, boring and weak. Moreover, the audiences read and watch stories with the expectation that the action will come to a peak and eventually to its conclusion.
EXAMPLES OF TURNING POINTS IN LITERATURE.
THE FIRST EXAMPLE.
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the drama got to a turning point when Romeo arrived at Juliet's tomb with the belief that she was dead, when in reality she was only in a false sleep. Read below his last words uttered while he stared at her 'apparently' dead body:
Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!
Drinks
O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Tragically, Romeo took the poison and that was perhaps the drama's most tense moment, since the audience knew Juliet will wake up at any moment, while Romeo was about to die. Little did he know of her plan that will bring them together, a plan that will eventually lead to the end of both the story and their lives as well.
THE SECOND EXAMPLE.
This is drawn from Nathaniel Hawthorne's dark story, A Rose for Emily, its turning point comes after the death of Emily, a woman with multiple secrets. The story:
Already, we were aware that there was only one room in that region and above the stairs which none had seen in well over forty years now, and which we would certainly force open this moment. They however waited until Emily was decently buried before they opened it.
The violence associated with breaking down the door seemed to fill up the room with pervading dust. A thin, acrid pall reminiscent to that from a tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon the entire room, which was decked furnished just like for a bridal suite. On a chair at the far end of the room hung the suit, carefully folded, and under it was the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.
The man himself lay in the bed.
The people of the town had broken into a room in Emily's house, where they found a dead man's remains. Worthy of note is that before this passage, nobody knew of Emily's dark secrets, and also nobody knew what would be behind that broken door. On finding the body however, all the details of the story seemed to to finally come together and to make sense. It concluded soon afterwards.
THE THIRD EXAMPLE.
This is culled from Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, in which three ghosts visited Ebenezer Scrooge in his sleep on the night of Christmas eve. At the end of the visit by the ghosts, they showed him a gravestone with his name engraved on it. It became clear to Scrooge that if he failed to change, he will eventually die before long. Finally, he begged the ghosts to spare his life. This is a turning point indeed for Scrooge. Afterwards, Scrooge began to be the sort of man the audience had always wanted him to be. He realized his mistakes and promised to change for good measure. Just when the tension was at its zenith, the ghosts disappeared and Scrooge woke up in his bed. He subsequently changed and that concluded the story.
THE FORTH EXAMPLE.
This is from the Pop Culture. In the action movie World War Z, which was based on the novel by Max Brooks, a former United Nations investigator, Gerry, was on a mission to save the world from a zombie pandemic. Somehow, he had to figure out a solution to the impasse. The moment Gerry opened the door was the turning point in the film. The tense situation had the audience on the edges of their seats as Gerry took the chance which would either kill him or save humanity. Walking past several zombies, it became clear that the story had come to its end.
THE FIFTH EXAMPLE.
It is drawn from the science fiction drama, Gravity, in which an astronaut, Ryan had a last chance of making it home, right after a tragic accident left her in space while fixing a satellite. The turning point of the story was when she was about to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. That was when the tension and suspense in the story were at their climax. At that stage, neither the audience nor the protagonist knew whether Ryan will live or die. However, as her parachute deployed, some of the tension abated, since it seemed that she might be safe on Earth soon.
Really a turning of events is when a plot of a narrative suddenly takes a dramatic twist in all conceivable directions. It is different from a turning point, since it can happen at any time in the story, as long as it provides a shock and turns the events to a new action.
CONCLUSION.
One thing about a turning point is that it instantly brings about a change or twist of events which ordinarily you would not have thought possible. Another comforting thing about this is the fact that most of the twist or reversal of events at turning points actually serve to resolve an impasse, clarify a confusion or bring peace of mind and succour, which means that the events at turning points are almost always for good and nothing else. Even in real life, turning points commonly bring about changes that we have hitherto never thought possible, easy or feasible. A turning point could be when events in life make you to abandon old and nasty habits for better ones, usually after you have been given the chance to see the errors in your previous ways. Turning points are desirable in so far as they are going to bring out a better improved versions of ourselves for the good of everyone. Finally, it is common knowledge that turning points usually happen when they will without necessarily any input or contribution on our part; they happen at their time and of their own volition too. How awesome this is. How awesome indeed.
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