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Uneasy Homecoming By Will F Jenkins. Building Suspense …. Time: “The last thin sliver of crimson sun went down below the world’s edge.” The safety of day is over Sense of descending into hell Darkness encourages your imagination to run wild Place: Lonely, isolated Sense of vulnerability
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Uneasy Homecoming By Will F Jenkins
Building Suspense … • Time: • “The last thin sliver of crimson sun went down below the world’s edge.” • The safety of day is over • Sense of descending into hell • Darkness encourages your imagination to run wild • Place: • Lonely, isolated • Sense of vulnerability • Plays on a common fear of being alone in an empty house
Building Suspense … • Immediate sense of uneasiness: • From the title • From the first sentence • Uncertainty (for Connie and the reader) about whether the threat is real or imagined • Foreshadowing (hints of trouble), e.g. the window, motorbike, telephone conversation • Dramatic irony • The author makes Connie’s fear universal: • “But it was also the unnerving realization that the fears she’d had about Them, the men who prey on others, were not entirely groundless.”
Building Suspense … • Pacing: • The author releases details steadily, bit by bit, so the reader doesn’t get a chance to relax • He confirms the presence of a burglar - thereby easing the tension - but then immediately escalates it again by introducing the threat of violence • Keeps the reader guessing: • He suggests possibilities … but they don’t work out (e.g. the telephone, riding the motorbike) • The audience wonders how she is going to get away • We are unsure of the burglar’s identity right up to the end (Tom??) even though she knows who it is
Building Suspense … • Word choice: • Dread, red dying sun, uneasy feeling intensified, restlessness, apprehension, silence, absurd, unbearable, infinite despair, unnerving, fears, etc, etc • Ellipsis: • “So he would go into the bedroom and look under the bed …” • Senses: • Uses sight and smell