Literary Analysis Of Suspense In Seconds Away By Harlan Coben

How suspense is built up in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

Most prominent in Chapter XVI of Chains, Laurie Halse Anderson incorporates setting and disaster as a way to create suspense for the main character, Isabel, on her journey to inform the Patriots. In the middle of the night when Isabel makes her way to the snuff jar containing the keys to the drawer with the Loyalists’ names, she “held [her] breath as [she] lifted the lid…[and] forced [herself] to remain still and count to twenty” (Anderson 98). During this period when she is retrieving the keys, the author uses the library setting to create suspense through the risk required to do so. Therefore, since the moonlight illuminates a portion of the library, the risk of making sounds Isabel takes causes the reader to fear for the possibility of discovery.

Stephen King, the author of Cujo, presents his book on a frightening level of suspense that Lewis Teague, the director of Cujo, a movie based on King’s novel, complements wonderfully. Lewis Teague stays true to Stephen’s book, occasionally adding his own twist to it.

W.W. Jacobs creates suspense using a mysterious monkey’s paw. Ricky Lewis Jr. attempted to create similar suspense using different techniques. As told in the story in the book,”He took the paw, and dangling it between his forefinger and thumb, suddenly threw it upon the fire. White, with a slight cry, stooped down and snatched it off. ”Better let it burn,” said the soldier solemnly. “If you don’t want it, Morris,” said the other, “give it to me.”.”I won’t said his friend doggedly.”I threw it on the fire. If you keep it, don’t blame me for what if happens. Pitch it on the fire like a sensible man.”(Jacobs,108) Therefore, W.W. Jacobs fundamentally builds suspense with the dialogue between Morris, who owned the paw initially, and Mr. White, who was interested and curious on what the paw had to offer.

How do authors write stories that make you want to read on? This is called suspense. Authors use different kinds of suspense techniques to keep the reader engaged in the story. The short story, “Lather and Nothing Else,” by Hernando Tellez is about a barber who has a hard time deciding whether or not to kill Captain Torres, the rebel executioner. The barber thinks that killing the Captain will make him a murderer, but a hero at the same time. Hernando Tellez creates suspense by foreshadowing, showing the character’s thoughts, and by using descriptive words.

In Krakauer’s story of fear, pain, and survival, he has ignited effects like suspense and tension, causing the reader to place themselves in his worn-out mountain shoes-mostly relying on devices like foreshadowing, pacing, manipulation of time and exposition as a cause.

Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” emotionally illustrates the hour in which a young woman with a heart condition finds out her husband has been killed in a mining accident. In the beginning, she grieves over the loss of her husband, but she soon becomes relieved and joyous when she realizes that she is now free. However, her husband returns after having been far from the mines for the day and her heart problems return and she dies. Kate Chopin was an early feminist author and was well acquainted with death after losing many siblings as a child, her husband (who left her a large amount of debt), and her mother with whom she was very close. As a means of therapy, Chopin took up writing and her ideas about feminism and death are very clear. In “The Story of An Hour,” Chopin uses multiple symbols and an allusion to a Greek god to illustrate and support the idea that male oppression harms the souls and lives of women.

People reads books and they get their captured by the suspense the authors use to write their stories. Suspense is a key point for most readers it keeps them reading the book to see what happens next. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Richard Connell are very good authors that use a lot of suspense throughout their short stories. Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado” and Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” are two stories full of suspense. It’s unpredictable, surprising that we can’t figure out what happens next. .Through conflict, setting, and diction Poe and Connell are able to build suspense.

The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin is the tragic story of a woman whose newfound position as a widow gives her strength. She develops a sense of freedom as she embraces her husband's death as an opportunity to establish her own identity. The tragedy is when her newfound identity gets stripped away as the appearance of her husband reveals that he is still alive. The disappointment from this tragedy kills her with a heart attack symbolizing the many conflicts that she faced throughout the story. The conflicts the character faces within herself and society show that the social norms for women were suppressing to their strength and individuality as human beings.

In the book code name verity Elizabeth Wein uses terrifying imagery followed by unthinkable details to bring out a tone of suspense. The imagery helps by painting a picture in the readers head to get them to understand it more easily. The imagery helps to understand the tone of suspense by talking about the torture that Julie goes through and how they don’t know what will happen next.

One way Stephen King increased the sense of horror and suspense in the excerpt is by adding a time limit and details. For example, when Cujo was about to jump into the open window next to Tad's seat and when Donna tried to close the window. This was an example of the time limit that I said earlier because Donna had to be fast when closing the window, if she was too slow then Cujo would've gotten into the car and they would die. This is shown in the text in paragraph 32 where it says, "...moving with such a hard muscular spasm that she cracked her fingers on the window crank. She turned it as fast as she could, panting, feeling Tad squirming beneath her." When Donna noticed Cujo moving toward Tad's window, she rushed toward the window and tried

The first element that the author developed is suspense. The author had many examples of this literary element. On page 59 in Liberty it states, “ ‘You haven’t seen us, you understand?’ ” The 2 men in the glasses she had never seen before wanted to stay unknown. The text on page 57 says, “ ‘Trouble,’ Mami suggested, kicking the puppy away.” This makes you wonder will she start to ever like the dog or not. On page 58 the text says, “….Mister Victor coming around our house and going off to study with Papi to talk over important things in low, worried voices.” This causes a lot of suspense because why would he come around their house acting suspicious? It makes you as yourself. All of these quotes above give good examples of suspense. These quotes make the story interesting and add more details to the story.

In the book A Long Way Gone the children are being stripped of their childhood. They do not get to experience the carefree childhood that most children have. They deserve to be having fun with their families and and not be scared and alone while being dragged into the war. A quote from the book that really explains how the children are living a stressful childhood is “I was afraid to fall asleep, but staying awake also brought back painful memories.” These children should not be sleep deprived nor terrified to fall asleep, this will cause growing problems for the child. They will not have all the physical and mental growth they need in life especially if they constantly stressed. Another example of them not having a carefree childhood is they’re

They way that a woman treats her friends is based on the person her parents raised her to be. In the story “Seconds” by Bryan O’Malley he follows the life of the protagonist Katie and how her decision greatly affect her future. Katie lacks a relationship with her parents, which is why she struggles in relationships. Katie proves this by communicating with her friends in an unpleasant manner. Katie lack many key aspect to being a good friend one is caring for other. Also her disrespectfulness also puts a strain on her relationships that she has with her friends. Along with that she also lies to her friends, and is unfaithful to her significant other without any consideration of their feelings. Lastly Katie is selfish, and puts her want in

it is able to show why the doctor is helping the boy and why the child