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Suspense In Chapter XVI Of Chains By Laurie Halse Anderson

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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.

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