Suspense In August Heat Analysis

Suspense in August Heat
Suspense, the state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Back about 20 years ago when everything was divine, and Trump wasn’t in the white house and a Clinton was, suspense was gradually popular in the media. Suspenseful media are popular as it gives you a “thrill” without being in danger personally. People, especially authors, tend to demonstrate suspense by foreshadowing events, withholding information from the readers, or when a character is in peril/ a situation turns from great to horrible, not all stupendous. (Source 1)
Throughout the short story, the author uses foreshadowing to create a suspenseful atmosphere for the reader. When James Clarence states, “I rolled up the sketch, and without quite knowing why, placed it in my pocket,” he was foreshadowing the event of James meeting the strange man and seeing that he looked exactly like the man he had sketched. His statement, “There was something unnatural, uncanny, in meeting this man,” helped support his foreshadowing about the identity of the man. Toward the end of the story, the strange man used foreshadow when he said, “The best thing we can do is for you to stay here till twelve o’clock,” he created suspense because it made the reader

wonder what would happen if he didn’t stay or he would’ve left.
The withholding of information from the author also designs suspense in the story. When W.F. Harvey wrote, “A man was sitting with his back toward me, busy at work on a slab of curiously veined marble,” he withheld the information about who the man was and what he was doing. Making the reader feel the suspense about what was going on. To expand on that, we can see that the author did the same thing when he stated, “I tried at first to persuade myself that I had seen him before, that his face, unknown to me, had found a place in some out of the way corner of my memory, but I knew that I was practicing a little more than a plausible piece of self-deception.” Here the author is still withholding the information of who the man really was in order to keep the reader in suspense. At the end of the story, the author leaves the reader in great suspense when he states, “But the heat is stifling. It is enough to send a madman,” because he doesn’t tell the reader what ends up happening to James Clarence.
One of the most effective techniques that the author uses to develop suspense is creating sudden change in the character’s situation, whether it’s from good to bad or vice versa. When James read that the inscription said, “Sacred to the memory of James Clarence Withencroft…” along with his birth date, it created tense suspense. It made the reader wonder why the man had encrypted his name and death without knowing him. Later in the story, the author uses this technique once again when the strange man states, “We’ll look at the matter straight. If you go back home to-night, you take your chance of accidents.” James went from starting his day off with a good sketch to now fearing for his life. It helps adds to the developed suspense Harvey created throughout the story.
Why were these important matters?

The use of foreshadowing events, withholding information from the readers, or when a character is in peril/ a situation turns from great to horrible not at all stupendous. (Source 1) The heat, traditionally interpreted during the summer time, had been mentioned quite frequently. It has been shown that, throughout the story, Mr. Atkinson had been quite frankly bothered by the torridity. “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 (97).” Subsequently, this immensely presupposes the idea of the oblivion of Mr. Withencroft. Those tales of suspense were able to allow one to foresee the fate of Mr.

Withencroft.