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Examples Of Foreshadowing In August Heat

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Suspense is a detail that many horror writer use to catch the attention of many readers and keep them holding on till the end. Just as W.F. Harvey does when creating suspense in his story August Heat. Mr. Harvey used three methods to create his suspense for his story, foreshadowing, withholding information, and reversal. With these three methods he is able to make the reader feel like, “ We may even hold our breath without realizing it as we read on eagerly to find out how the story ends”(Source 1).
The first method Mr. Harvey created suspense in his story August Heat was through Foreshadowing. From the very beginning of the story the main character has been placed in a moment of foreshadowing. James Clarence Whitencroft, the main character, …show more content…

Harvey uses to create suspense in his story is by withholding information. By withholding important information about the character or the setting around the main character, makes us want to read more to find out what these little bits of detail mean. For example, “The final result, for hurried sketch, was, I felt sure, the best thing I had done. It showed a criminal in the dock immediately after the judge had pronounced sentence”(Source 2). This small part of the passage is what makes one to wonder who is this man and why he is seen in a courtroom waiting to hear his a sentence, which is the very suspense Mr. Harvey is trying to create. Another example of withholding information, “There? what do you think of that?” he said with an air of evident pride. The inscription which read for the first time was this -- SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JAMES CLARENCE WITHENCROFT BORN JAN 18TH 1860 HE PASSED AWAY VERY SUDDENLY ON AUGUST 20TH 190-- “In midst of life we are in death.”(Source 2). This is the part of the story where Mr. withencroft sees what the man, Mr. Atkinson, has been working on with this piece of marble, only to find out it was a gravestone with his name on it. Its these type of scenes that build up on the suspense and makes one read on to find out what will happen to the …show more content…

harvey used to build his suspense in his story was reversal. Reversal is when the character is faced with a change of situations.Where it can go from good to bad and vice versa. Now after reading through the whole story, it can easily be said that the whole story is the reversal. The character starts its morning off as a normal day nothing wrong, mostly everything is calm. As the story continues you start to sense something goes wrong, “From there onward I have only the vaguest recollection of where I went”(Source 2). Automatically the character is face with a dilemma, he went out not really knowing where he would go and this makes one question what the character was thinking and whether something was wrong with him. Another example would be the ending which ties up the whole suspense of this story. “The air seemed charged with thunder. I am writing this at a shaky table before the open window. The leg is cracked, and Atkinson, who seems a handy man with his tools, is going to mend it as soon as he has finished putting an edge on his chisel. It is after eleven now. I shall be gone in less than an hour. But the heat is stifling. It is enough to send a man mad”(Source 2). The very ending is where the suspense is at a high point because it ends without many questions being answer. Yet it also brings in new questions to the reader’s minds. Leaving the reader to only question and figure out what will happen next, this is the suspense Mr. harvey had

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