Point Of View And Suspense In Literature Analysis

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Uses of Point of View and Suspense in Literature Mary McCarthy once said, "We all live in suspense, from day to day, hour to hour; in other words, in other words we are the hero of our own story". Mary is explaining that in our society humans live and thrive off of suspense. This is why many stories used suspense in attempt to captivate the reader. The use of point of view in the stories Live to tell, "Man from the South", and "Refresh Refresh" plays a crucial roll in creating suspense. The first story where point of view creates suspense is Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner. An example of suspense is when Lisa is about to slip her son a sedative, Gardner writes, "One step. Two, three, four... I approach the end of the hallway." (Gardner). Gardner …show more content…

A first spot suspense is shown is when they are spying on the campsite and Percy writes,"Night had come on and the moon hung over the Cascades, grayly lighting our was as we crept through the forest imagining ourself sin enemy territory,city trip wires and guard towers and snarling dogs around every corner. From behind the boulder that overlooked their campsite, we observed our enemies as they swapped hunting stories..."(Percy5). The point of view this is what creates the suspense with this part of the story. If it was told from the people in the campsites viewpoint there would be no suspense because they do not know the are being spied on. The suspense is created because the reader is wondering if they are going to get caught and what will happen next. This is also shown when they are about to go to the marine recruitment center: "'Ready?' I said. 'One!' I inched him a little closer to the edge. 'Two!' I moved him a little closer still and as I did I felt unwieldy, at ice wild and exhausted, my body seeming to take on another twenty, thirty, forty years. Then I finally said, 'Three,' my voice was barely a whisper"(Percy7). He is very nervous in their part of the story, him saying that he feels older shows how scared he is about what they are about to do, this makes readers crave to know what happens next and to know what is making him so nervous. His counting and taking a while to get out

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