Authors often provoke a sense of suspense in readers by slowly foreshadowing future events but still holding back sufficient information for readers to become anxious to discover the fate of characters in a story. This can no better be demonstrated than in Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian”. In the book, the setting takes place at a desolate town, the streets totally deserted and barren but for a single solitary man walking among the multitude of silent houses. The man, Leonard Mead, is depicted taking a stroll on the streets when he’s stopped by a police car and interrogated on what he’s doing out all by himself, with which Mr. Mead replies, “walking”. The conversation goes on, and the author little by little reveals to the reader
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In his horror tale, Poe begins the narrative by introducing the main protagonist, a man who rejects being mad yet seems exceedingly to the reader as insane. “True!--nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?... Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” (Poe 354). The author then continues the story taking the place of the”madman” as he vividly recounts each successive event leading to his current position. Edgar Allan Poe induces suspense within his short story when he describes a ringing that begins to take place in the protagonist’s ears as he converses with the policemen. “No doubt I now grew very pale;--but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased--and what could I do?... I gasped for breath--and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly--more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone?... I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!”(Poe 358). In the given quote, Poe creates a sense of suspense in the reader as the reader becomes anxious to discover the result of the “madman’s” ravings. The author does this by showing the growing tension within the teller of the story as the noise becomes more and more perceptible and maddening, thus
In his horror tale, Poe begins the narrative by introducing the main protagonist, a man who rejects being mad yet seems exceedingly to the reader as insane. “True!--nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?... Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” (Poe 354). The author then continues the story taking the place of the”madman” as he vividly recounts each successive event leading to his current position. Edgar Allan Poe induces suspense within his short story when he describes a ringing that begins to take place in the protagonist’s ears as he converses with the policemen. “No doubt I now grew very pale;--but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased--and what could I do?... I gasped for breath--and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly--more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone?... I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!”(Poe 358). In the given quote, Poe creates a sense of suspense in the reader as the reader becomes anxious to discover the result of the “madman’s” ravings. The author does this by showing the growing tension within the teller of the story as the noise becomes more and more perceptible and maddening, thus