Write about the mystery story you read WITHOUT giving any details about the ending.
The story I read is ‘A Horseman in the Sky’ by Ambrose Bierce. The story is about a young man, whose name was Carter Druse, full of zeal to defend his country in a military service. The war was ‘the American Civil War’ where the young officer from the north was determined to kill the enemy (spy) from the south. Even against his wealthy father’s wish, he left for the Union Military camp. He was eventually deployed to fight and while he was in the valley waiting to shoot the advancing enemy, Carter went into a deep sleep that led to a trance or a dream where his encounter with a mysterious horseman could not match his reality. However, he did what he had to do …show more content…
Therefore, I concluded that this story belongs to the mystery genre because the plot of the story involves an event that cannot really be explained to human comprehension- an army who is supposed to fight an enemy is involved in a dream and fight with an unexplained being. This is how a mystery genre often goes. Furthermore, the clues in the story suggest who did the act, which was made known at the end of the story. The red herrings; those are the distractions or false clues (combat battle turning into a spiritual warfare) involved in the story are a hallmark of a mystery genre. Finally, the story has a structured beginning where the character was apparently introduced and the reader could easily identify the problem. The end of the story similarly indicates how the mystery was solved (Newingham, n.d.). All these elements suggest that the story I read was a mystery …show more content…
I would have changed the situation of the Horseman and created a scene where the horseman would bleed to the point of death and, then, he suddenly resurfaces as a supernatural being or a ghost that cannot be destroyed by mortals. Additionally, the mountain Carter was looking at would have become a gateway to an evil world furiously chasing after him to revenge the situation of the horseman. This setting, when combined with the early shock of Carter’s experience would have changed the story from a mystery genre to a horror
The story I read is ‘A Horseman in the Sky’ by Ambrose Bierce. The story is about a young man, whose name was Carter Druse, full of zeal to defend his country in a military service. The war was ‘the American Civil War’ where the young officer from the north was determined to kill the enemy (spy) from the south. Even against his wealthy father’s wish, he left for the Union Military camp. He was eventually deployed to fight and while he was in the valley waiting to shoot the advancing enemy, Carter went into a deep sleep that led to a trance or a dream where his encounter with a mysterious horseman could not match his reality. However, he did what he had to do …show more content…
Therefore, I concluded that this story belongs to the mystery genre because the plot of the story involves an event that cannot really be explained to human comprehension- an army who is supposed to fight an enemy is involved in a dream and fight with an unexplained being. This is how a mystery genre often goes. Furthermore, the clues in the story suggest who did the act, which was made known at the end of the story. The red herrings; those are the distractions or false clues (combat battle turning into a spiritual warfare) involved in the story are a hallmark of a mystery genre. Finally, the story has a structured beginning where the character was apparently introduced and the reader could easily identify the problem. The end of the story similarly indicates how the mystery was solved (Newingham, n.d.). All these elements suggest that the story I read was a mystery …show more content…
I would have changed the situation of the Horseman and created a scene where the horseman would bleed to the point of death and, then, he suddenly resurfaces as a supernatural being or a ghost that cannot be destroyed by mortals. Additionally, the mountain Carter was looking at would have become a gateway to an evil world furiously chasing after him to revenge the situation of the horseman. This setting, when combined with the early shock of Carter’s experience would have changed the story from a mystery genre to a horror