Three Skeleton Key Personification Analysis

Summary

Personification is the best literary device that gives suspense in Three Skeleton Key. My first claim is that personification gives suspense because it reveals the suspenseful location of the story. In the text on pg. 40 it says “The light danced over the stream.” Someone may argue against that saying that the lighthouses light doesn’t make the story suspenseful. After that I would argue that their counter-argument is flawed because the fact that that’s the only light around makes the reader nervous about what’s going to happen to the characters. Then the reader is going to start feeling antsy about whether the characters are going to stay out of danger and in the light.

My second claim is that personification is the best literary device that gives suspense because it uses descriptive words to compare human like qualities with non-living things to explain what’s going on in the story. It uses such detail that the reader ponders about what will happen next. In

the text on pg. 40 it states “The story was that the three skeletons gleaming with phosphorescent light, danced over the small rock screaming.” Someone may argue that the personification in that piece of evidence doesn’t make the story suspenseful it makes it spooky. After that statement has been said I would say that suspense doesn’t mean something’s spooky. It’s the feeling of tension, uncertainty, and expectancy. This story isn’t so much of a spooky or scary story, it’s more of a story that makes you feel unaware and excited of what’s going to happen next.
My last claim is that personification is the best literary device that gives suspense because it lets the reader picture the scene as they are reading story.

The text supports my claim when on pg. 44 it says “A sighing groan comes as the water rushed into the ship.” Someone might try to refute me and say that my evidence doesn’t make the story suspenseful it’s just another small detail that has nothing to do with this debate. Afterwards I would say that my piece of evidence does create suspense because when the reader reads that part of the story they can clearly picture the water rushing onto the ship. This makes them wonder, who’s on the ship? Or if their is someone aboard, are they going to survive? This shows that they're excited to see what happens next which is the exact definition of suspense. So that’s why that counter argument is wrong, and since I refuted all of your other refutations this proves that personification is the best literary device that gives suspense in Three Skeleton

Key.