Monkey's Paw

The authors of both stories, last but not leastly, use suspenseful moods, the feeling that the story creates within the reader, and dangerous/mysterious tones, an author’s attitude toward the subject or audience of the story, throughout the story. In The Monkey’s Paw, the author says, “...The clock tick.s. A chair creaks. Finally, a quiet knock is heard. Mrs. White jumps up.” This is an example of a suspenseful mood and mysterious tone. In the

The night is crisp and black as the moon lets off an eerie glow, leaves rustle and fall somewhere in the distance. A silhouette dwarfs the blackberry bush in the corner as one’s footsteps refrain, they move closer; you run. Suspense is a state of tension and anxiety which was used in the sentence above and is common in books and short stories. In the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs suspense is created in a variety of ways. Jacobs demonstrates this by using foreshadowing, conflict and surprise endings.

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.

The author’s narrative, ripe with horrifying descriptions, is nonetheless told with compassion appealing to the emotions of the audience

"The Monkey's Paw" is a short story which moves around the edges of a ghost story and the uncanny. In general terms, the narration immerses the reader into a frightening atmosphere in which the reader can realise that there are certain elements that make the reading something more than a spooky tale; for example the way time is treated in the structure of the story. It is peculiar the way W.W. Jacobs manages to create a rather concrete story by making the reader fill so many gaps. In our opinion, that is due to the fact that there is a complete focus on the development of the story since the arrival of the monkey's paw, and that there are several omissions of facts in the beginning and in the end of the story, which is no coincidence. This

The “Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw” both convey suspicion and growing fear of what will happen “The Monkey’s Paw” is about a monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, but in the worst way. The “Tell-Tale Heart” is about a man who murders an old man, but his guilty conscience betrayed him by making him hear the old man’s heart after he died. "The Monkey's Paw" creates suspense through a slow paced timeline, and "The Tell-Tale Heart" creates suspense throughout the plot, the murder, and finally the heart beating after death causing him to surrender and confess.

As the story develops, the reader’s thoughts are guided by the structure of the piece in a way that Tan is able to share an important lesson through the form of a personal narrative. The opening text immediately introduces the narrator and her insecurities as she wishes for a “slim new American nose” (Tan 1). The story initially takes on a negative tone as Tan proceeds to have a negative outlook throughout the entire evening. Her overwhelming anxiety can almost be felt by the reader as she worries what Robert will think of her “noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners” and overall “shabby Chinese Christmas” (Tan 1). With the tone set, Tan continues to amplify each dreadful detail of her family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner. This includes the actual meal, that of which appeared to be

In his latest novel, Jasper Jones (2009), Craig Silvey uses syntax, visual and olfactory imagery, personification and symbolism to describe the inside of Mad Jack Lionel’s dingy house, creating a sinister, gloomy and malicious mood. As this setting is observed through the youthful eyes of the Bildungsroman novel’s narrator, Charlie Bucktin, you receive the eye-opening thoughts and perceptions of a child combined with Silvey’s precisely crafted language, producing an impactful and evocative passage.

While both short stories can be considered entertaining, W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” does an overall better job at using characterization, irony and foreshadowing to create the long-lasting effect of suspense. Throughout the story, Jacobs creates a theme which can be interpreted in many ways such as: “Be careful what you wish for.” or “Evil can come in the most unexpected forms,“ (such as the paw). If the theme of evil and regret is present before the story is even introduced, the reader is automatically pulled into this preconceived idea that there will be a great amount of suspense. This idea continues to be confirmed as the story develops.

With all of that being said, the book I am reflecting on is entitled Even the Rat was White. This book was written by Robert V. Guthrie and includes a new foreword by William H. Grier. The purpose of this reflection is to review what I’ve read and to present a recollection of the emotions and experiences brought on by the reading of this book. This reflection will be outlined in different sections according to certain chapter pairings. Every chapter will be discussed in groups of two except for the last chapter of nine and then will be followed by a summary of the information presented.

1. Throughout the story suspense is aroused and maintained excellently. This is achieved by the character the author creates. Mr. Martin is characterized as a neat and cautious man, who never took a smoke or a drink in his life. Our suspense is aroused when the author states that it has been “a week to the day since Mr. Martin had decided to rub out Mrs. Ulgine Barrows”. This arouses our suspense because we are told Mr. Martin is planning to murder this woman. The suspense is maintained with Mr. Martin’s thoughts. We as an audience are given his thoughts through the use of the 3rd person omniscient point of view. His thoughts are mostly on the issue on his dislike of Mrs. Barrows. Because of this, he

This story begins to drive the sense of emotion with the very surroundings in which it takes place. The author starts the story by setting the scene with describing an apartment as poor, urban, and gloomy. With that description alone, readers can begin to feel pity for the family’s misfortune. After the apartments sad portrayal is displayed, the author intrigues the reader even further by explaining the family’s living arrangements. For example, the author states “It was their third apartment since the start of the war; they had

“The Mouse” is a short story written by H.H Munro. The main characters are Theodoric, the mouse, and the blind lady. The author Munro writes the story in third person and uses an omniscient view. The setting of the story takes part in the vicarage, the stable, and the ends in train compartment. The tone used by the author to engage his readers is an exciting, thrilling fast paced tone that bring the characters to life. To strengthen the thrilling exciting tone, the author uses phrases such as: “he was not even alone in his own clothes. “A warm, creeping movement over his flesh betrayed the unwelcome and highly resented presence, unseen but poignant, of a strayed mouse.” After reading the quote above, I as the reader was drawn into the

Fun Home is a retelling of Alison Bechdel’s life through the lens of her relationship with her father. However, because of what she considers to have been his suicide, Alison is left with an incomplete picture of who he was in life. By calling Fun Home an autobiography, Bechdel enters an autobiographical pact with the reader that ensures that what Bechdel is telling us is the truth. However, elements out of her control leave Bechdel unable to provide certain objective facts necessary to her narrative. As an attempt to remedy these absences and in turn maintain the validity of her story, Bechdel uses intertextuality to fill in the gaps of in her retelling. By overlaying masterplots of fictional narratives over her own, the reader is able to get at an understanding of the kind of person Alison’s father was. In this way Bechdel is able to reveal things about her father that she can 't prove to be true, but are reflective enough of his life to become true.

He idealizes Mangan’s sister, and portrays her as his only source of light in his bleak world. The boy describes his street as having “dark muddy lanes behind the houses…dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits” and the rooms of his house “musty from having been enclosed too long”. These depictions demonstrate how repressed he feels regarding his lifeless surroundings. Meanwhile, illustrations of Mangan’s sister are associated with light and ease, “her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door” or “the light from the lamp…lit up her hair”. The boy clings on to the image of the girl and intoxicates himself with emotions of delight and exhilaration. This drives him to embark on the journey to the bazaar, along with high expectations of exotic surroundings. However, he is met with heavy disappointment - a train that drops him at an “improvised wooden platform” and a “silence like that which pervades a church after a service”. He comes to an epiphany – Mangan’s sister was only an arrogant wish for change and she would only fail his expectations as well, his infatuation was as misleading as his fantasies about the