Shirley Jackson's Use Of Suspense In The Interlopers

In the stories “The Lottery” and “The Interlopers” the authors Shirley Jackson and Saki use pacing, structure of text and mood to build suspense. Through the use of pacing, the authors are able to develop their stories and cause suspense for the surprise endings of their stories. The use of pacing creates tension in stories and lets the author’s emphasize certain features of their book. From the very first sentence in the book “The Lottery” the author sets the pacing of the book for the reader by saying, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green”. Throughout the book, the author never strays from the painfully slow pacing thus creating anxiety within the reader to figure out what the lottery is and why it is important. While Shirley Jackson creates suspense by keeping a slow pacing, Saki creates suspense and tension by increasing the pace of the book as more action happens. Although the author’s use of pacing creates tension and suspense, the author’s structure of text also creates suspense.
The authors of “The Lottery” and “The Interlopers” also use the structure of the text to build their story. Through character development, both authors show how …show more content…
In “The Lottery” the opening sentence of the book gives the setting of the story. The opening sentence says, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green”. the reader can imagine in their head what the scene and the atmosphere is like. The mood evokes feelings in the reader at the end of the book that contradict the calm setting used in the beginning. Whereas in “The Interlopers” the author starts off with a suspenseful mood saying, “In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs