How do Lee Harper and Mildred D Taylor use writing techniques to create tension?
Lee Harper, the author of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and Mildred D. Taylor, the author of ‘Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry’ both create a lot of tension in both of their writing in those books. I have been analysing some extracts from each of the books, they both use various techniques to create tension, some of them being the same but not all.
I am going to start by writing about Harper’s writing in To Kill A Mockingbird, the main technique of his that I noticed in his writing is his use of the senses, mostly the hearing sense and the seeing sense. He uses a lot of describing words of a setting, an atmosphere or a person to create suspense or tension. It is that kind of writing that leads you into the book, and almost drags you through the book into the place. ‘It was the shadow of a man with a hat, at first I thought it was a tree, but there was no wind blowing, and tree trunks never walked. The back porch was bathed in moonlight, and the shadow, crisp as toast, moved across the porch towards Jem’ – page 59. The use of the simile ‘crisp as toast’ also adds to the use of the senses. Personally this is my favourite way of using a writing technique to create tension as I feel that it is a much easier way to draw a reader into the book and into the scene.
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But this is the not the only way that Harper created suspense in the writing, he uses a lot of sentences that link together in a sort of creepy way, short or long, they seem to have a rhythym to them – when he is talking about an eery character, or an eery moment in the story.. ‘every scratch of foot on the gravel was Boo Radley seeking revenge; every passing Negro laughing in the night was Boo Radley loose and after us; Insects splashing around the screen were Boo Radleys insane fingers picking the wire to pieces’ – page 60. This scene is after the children have run up to the Radley’s house, if you read those sentences aloud you notice that as you’re reading they do become slightly creepy in your mind. The lines flow together, like a poem, and as you read it you can almost hear the ‘insane fingers picking the wire to pieces’ or ‘every scratch of foot on the gravel’ once again he uses senses to draw the reader in. This also portrays a clear picture of what you think Boo Radley is like, which is what I think the author tries to do throughout the story. Harper builds up Boo Radleys’ character with not just talking about the actual character, but talking about the scene he might be in, and scenario’s you expect the character to be in. By linking him in with an eery atmosphere, you automatically imagine a slightly in the dark, eery character.
The writing technique that Harper used that I found most interesting, yet effective was how he writes what the narrator is thinking, in this case it’s what Scout is thinking. ‘But why in the hold hill did you wait till tonight? – because nobody could see them a night, because Atticus would be so deep in a bok he wouldn’t hear the Kingdom coming… ‘did I understand?’ – page 57. I felt that this way of writing really connected you with the character, Scout, it made you ask questions that she was asking and whilst she is figuring out what Jem and Dill are trying to do, you find yourself trying to figure it out as well. I think that builds up suspense as well because you as the reader you really want to know what is going to happen, and what the boys are going to do, Harper has a way of writing what she is thinking, where as you’re reading it in your head you can almost hear her voice, and sense worry and nerves in the way that you expect her to be saying it. With this, you feel the same way. I found this really enjoyable to read. These were the three main aspects of Harper’s techniques of creating tension, that I prefered. Of course these were not the only ways, he used the ovbious tension making technique of using a lot of dark, creepy adjectives or sense of question, wondering, the main ways of creating suspense whilst writing, these are of course, always successful. But I found the other three ways, not so common and much more interesting.
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Mildred D Taylor’s writing of ‘Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry’ contains a lot of suspension and a lot of tension. Especially in the extract that I was studying for this essay, this was chapter 11 of the book. Within the first few lines of reading I was completely drawn into the story – ‘The door swung open and T.J slipped inside. I pulled my door closed and followed him. “I-im in trouble, Stacey”’ immediately as I read that line my mind and thoughts were completely in the book. Not only is it what he said ‘Im in trouble’ it is the way that he has ‘slipped’ inside the door. This automatically created an image in my mind of a boy, creeping into the room trying not to be heard or trying not to make a scene and my mind suddenly burst into many questions asking myself what he has done, why he’s in trouble. And I am sure it wasn’t just me who felt this way then they were reading the extract. Taylor not only creates a scene through the speech of the characters but the way that she describes the way they’re acting or speaking. – ‘T.J mumbled, TJ whispered’ these types of describing someone’s speech or actions leads you into questions, and allows you to let your imagination run wild. It creates a quiet, dark atmosphere in your mind, and you start to fit in the other characters around the situation.
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Taylor also leaves the reader asking quite a lot in the extract, and most likely the rest of the book if that is the writing technique that she uses to create tension, she often leaves questions in the text, which then flow into your mind until you’re so caught up in what is happening that you dont put the book down – ‘Undoing the buttons on his shirt, he pulled the shirt open and stared down at his stomach’- page 244, if you had to close the book and put it down as soon as you had read that one sentence you would be more than reluctant to, by just saying ‘stomach’ not ‘injured stomach’ or something along those lines, you automatically become eager as a reader to know exactly what he is looking at on his stomach, this of course leads you to read on. It is then, in the next few lines that the answer that has suddenly been bursting inside your head is answered and you can finally relax. But then just when you think nothing else could happen, you are given another question to constantly ask yourself and wonder about over again, ‘Tell me how come they did this to you…”Cause..cause I said I was gonna tell what happened’ of course any normal person would suddenly have question marks popping up in their mind at the moment you read that, but it goes on afterwards. Taylor has a way of almost torturing the reader with questions, leaving the reader constantly wondering what the characters are talking about. You want to know who, where, when and how, immediately. Taylor does this throughout her writing, it makes it exciting and it brings the book to life.
The last line of the extract is ‘TJ, ., was them Barnetts dead?!’ asked Stacey, then TJ grew quiet”. She starts with questions and she ends with questions.
Having read extracts of both the books I felt that the tension that Taylor made was a lot stronger than the tension the Harper built, this is due to the technique but also the way the author uses senses, describing words and in Taylors case, the use of allowing the reader to have something to figure out along the way. I personally prefer Taylor’s way of writing, but that is only my opinion. I feel that Taylor’s use of rhetorical, and non rhetorical questions led me into the book and into the scene, she caught me in the book and she held onto me, one of the most important things for a good author to do for a reader. You can see from reading what I have said, and from reading the books yourself that use of suspsense and tension really do add a lot to a book, they add a sense of life to the book, rather than it being words on the page.
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