Three Skeleton Key Character Analysis

What is mood? Mood is the overall feeling or atmosphere of a work of literature. The feeling a reader gets while reading a work of literature is called mood. Also, mood helps bring a certain feeling or emotion into a reader's mind. Furthermore, a writer may also produce a unique mood with the usage of literary devices such as irony, similes, and personification, which are inserted throughout the story. For the most part, these literary devices help enhance a reader's experience while reading the story. Also, literary devices help act as guides to find the author's purpose in reading the work of literature such as for entertainment, persuasion, or to inform. This story is called "Three Skeleton Key" by George G. Toulouse. In summary, "Three

Skeleton Key" tells the terrifying and traumatizing experience when three lighthouse keepers are trapped in their own lighthouse by an army of man-eating rats. Throughout the story, "Three Skeleton Key" the author uses literary techniques such as setting, characterization, and suspense to create the frightening mood and the atmosphere of the story.

In the story "Three Skeleton Key" the first literary technique used to create a frightening mood is the description of the setting. To begin with, setting is the time, era, or place in which the action of the story happens. The time of the setting is the physical time of the story. The era of a story is the period of history and the customs and values of that time. The location where the story takes place which can be both real or imaginary is known as the place of the setting. The setting of "Three Skeleton Key" is on an island twenty miles off the coast of Guiana. In addition, the island is only one hundred fifty by forty feet and has barely enough room for a man to stretch his legs. Not to mention that the rocks around the island were treacherously smooth, which if you slipped on, would go into the shark-infested waters. The lighthouse was a gray tapering cylinder, welded with iron rods and concrete on to the island. Additionally, the island got its name when three convicts escaped from prison on a stolen dugout canoe. Next, they were marooned on the small island after their ship was wrecked. Afterwards, they died from hunger and starvation, and their bodies were picked clean by birds. Many people believe that this island is haunted. A quote from the story that would support this description of the island and the lighthouse is, "Three Skeleton Keys...bore a bad reputation. It earned its name from the story of the three convicts who...died of hunger and thirst. The story was that the three skeletons, gleaming with phosphorescent light, danced over the small rock, screaming..." on page 35 of the book. This delineation of the background information about the location creates an "isolated" and "lonely" mood of the story in a reader's mind. The island plays a big part of the story because it is 20 miles away from civilization. This makes it much more difficult to communicate and be in the loop with other people. It makes the reader feel alone and afraid because the island on which the lighthouse keepers were living on was isolated from civilization. The way characters feel in the story can be experienced by the reader, which is the result of the author's excellent usage of vivid descriptions of the island. Without the comfort of other people, a person may feel inferior and separated, just like the characters in the story. When the reader understands that the characters of the story were living on a haunted island, it also makes the reader feel afraid. A setting helps give to the overall mood of the story because the location's atmosphere can also affect the atmosphere of the story. The point that they are on a stranded island with no way to escape, that might also be haunted creates a bad feeling that something is going to occur which is also another example of a different literary device. For example, if the setting had been in Paris, France, the atmosphere of the story would be romantic and if the setting had been inside a dark mansion in the middle of the night, then the atmosphere of the story would turn very scary. The setting plays a big part of the atmosphere in the story.

In the story, "Three Skeleton Key" another literary technique the way the author used to create a frightening mood in the story is the way the author characterizes the rats.

Characterization is how a character is described in a story. A character can be described by appearance, physical traits, personality, their words, their motives, and many other descriptions. In this story, the author used physical and personality traits to help describe his characters more clearly in the story. Physical traits are a character's appearance. Personality traits are permanent qualities in a character. While on the island, the three men noticed something strange while on duty. A Dutch ship was just sailing toward them. However, when the crew members looked more closely, the Dutch boat was not abandoned by her crew, but was instead eaten alive by an army of human-eating sea rats! Sea rats are not like your ordinary house rat. House rats scurry into their little mouse hole as soon as they sense danger. Sea rats are strong, brave animals. The rats in the story are described by both very stimulating physical and personality traits. The physical traits of the rats are large, strong, huge, and have sharp claws and teeth. The physical features of the rats make them much stronger and powerful than the average brown rat. The personality traits of the rats are brave, vengeful, have respect to the sea and are fierce. They are also superior, intelligent, and clannish. Worse of all, these are

flesh-eating rats. If one so much finds you, you will not escape from their jaws of sharp teeth, with their teeth ripping and shredding through your flesh until there is nothing left of you but a pile of bones. These personality traits give the rats a much stronger and solid human personality. A quote that would support the characterization of the rats is, "The rats of the sea are fierce, bold animals. Large, strong, and intelligent, clannish and sea-wise...And they are brave these creatures, and vengeful. If you so much as harm one, his sharp cry will bring hordes of his fellows to swarm over you, and will not cease until your flesh had been stripped from the bones," on page 39. How does characterization help create a scary type of mood and atmosphere throughout the story? Well, when a character is described more clearly in a story, it also helps the reader see the characters acting more vividly in their minds. It creates a solid and clear picture for the reader about how the rats are acting. It makes the reader feel very scared because reading about man-eating rats is not an easy idea to digest. Due to the rat's human-like personalities, the rats can think and act like normal humans. As a result, these rats can work together as an army to overcome you. In addition, when a rat has developed a characteristic to act vengefully, this personality of a rat can be very frightening.

Finally, the use of literary devices such as suspense helps to create a frightening mood in the story "Three Skeleton Key." Suspense is the feeling of anxious curiosity.

Throughout the story, the author, George G. Toulouse, had used suspense to add to the mood of the story. When the ship was acting erratically, we readers wanted to continue reading the story. Suspense makes the reader feel uncertain of the outcome of the story. Suspense also acts as motivation for the readers to continue reading a story. Without the addition of having a reader interested in a story, the reader will quickly lose interest and stop reading. When an author uses suspense in a story, the author first starts out with a bang and continues to add onto the "hook" of the story that continues to interest the reader. As the ship crashed on the shore, the readers were very excited to see what was to happen next in the story. While the lighthouse keepers were trapped inside by the hordes of starving sea rats, the readers of the story wanted to know what would be the result. This anxious feeling while reading the story is called suspense. A quotation that would support these previous sentences is, "The ship...impaled herself on a sharp point of rock. There was...a horrible crackling as the three masts went overboard at once, as if cut down with one blow of some giant sickle. A sighing groan came as the water rushed into the ship. Then she split into two and sank like a stone," on page 40. Throughout the

text, the author had used suspense to increase the story's anxiety. An example of suspense being used in the story is when the Dutch ship is spotted in the distance. Another example is when the author describes the sea-rats climbing over and into the lighthouse. This type of literary devices creates a more suspenseful story. For instance, suspense makes the reader feel more excited, because we want to know what happens next in the story. The result of the story is what the readers read to find out what happens. Throughout the story, the author sends death imagery into the reader's mind as another tactic for suspense. What makes this piece from the passage seem eerie is the way the author worded the actions of the boat. When the narrator had described the boat sinking like it had been cut down by a giant sickle, this is an example of the death imagery used by the author. When the author uses suspense, it creates the heightened state of mood by motivating the reader to continue reading the book. The suspense is what pushes us to read the rest of a book.

The story "Three Skeleton Key" by George G. Toulouse tells the frightening tale of what three innocent lighthouse keepers had experienced. The lighthouse keepers were trapped inside their own lighthouse after a large Dutch ship crashed on the reef, which was also carrying a large man-eating rat army. The lighthouse keepers were barricaded inside the lighthouse for nine days, until a rescue boat came and freed the lighthouse keepers from their invaders after a short quarrel. Afterwards, one lighthouse keeper died, the second was sent to an asylum in France, and the third continued working at the lighthouse. The effect of suspenseful stories on readers is that suspense in the story helps motivate the reader to continue reading the story to find out what happens next in the story. More importantly, the use of literary devices helps the reader find the theme and purpose more easily. Throughout the story "Three Skeleton Key," the author George G. Toulouse used literary devices to help create the frightening mood of the story. The literary devices used in the story were setting, characterization, and suspense. It makes us thirst for the interesting tale written by authors using many techniques to capture out attention. This story was a success in create a frightening mood and making it suspenseful and anticipating. Readers continue to read the story, quickly flipping through the pages to relieve the urge of knowing what comes next. In conclusion, the author cleverly used literary devices to help create a special atmosphere in reading the story.