The Rifle is written in three movements and an anticlimax. There is nothing particularly classical about how the movements are structured. The first two introduce sets of events that are very distinct from one another. One depicts the life of a weapon, explaining how it came to be and how people could admire, even "worship" it.

The other tells of a boy removed by more than two hundred years and thousands of miles from where the rifle was made and where the people who used it lived. The two are contrasts: Richard lives in an age when rifles are not necessary to survival.

He is growing up, becoming a unique personality, with experiences helping to shape him. On the other hand, once made, the rifle is a static thing. It does not grow as Richard does; it does not become a truer shot for its experience...