Also, in chapter 19, which is also the end of the book, Virginia Hamilton used another cliffhanger, which led us to the next book, The Mystery of Drear House. That way, it will give people the motive to read on to the next book and make the readers eager to read the next book. Metaphor revealed through out the book, such as: The stream in the moat. The covered planks are the drawbridges, Thomas thought. And the house of Dies Drear is the castle. In this case, the house of Dies Drear is being compared to a castle, it gives us a mysterious mood, and the impetus can make the story more interesting than just saying everything straightforward.
Virginia Hamilton used the plot structure/plot diagram in her book. Beginning, rising action, climax, falling action and ending. The beginning of the story is when the Smalls moved in, rising action in when they knew about the backgrounds of the house and Pluto. Climax is when they had their revenge on the Darrows. The falling action shall be the sequel of The House of Dies Drear. I find this very interesting because Virginia Hamilton wrote The Mystery of Drear House also, but she started working on it 18 years after the first book was published.
The sequel was about what happened after, and explained most parts of the mystery in the first book. She, herself also said that “I began it by looking for an opening, something I hadn’t done in the first book. ‘ What did I miss doing in Dies Drear? ’ I asked myself. ‘Is there anything I left out I can pick up in the second book? ’” Throughout the second book, she mostly solved all the mysteries in the first book, which acted as a falling action and the ending. Not a lot of authors decide to put the ending in a separate book.
The Essay on The Mystery Of Drear House
... Virginia Hamilton compliments the original plot perfectly in The Mystery of Drear House. The books dark secrets begin to slowly unveil and are brought ... plot and motive for the characters bizarre actions. The main character in the book was Thomas small; he is a young ... end with a surprising friendship. The book is again set around the house of Dies Eddington Drear, in a current year. The surrounding ...
In addition to this, the writer uses some stylistic effects to make the story interesting to read. Such as descriptive words and allusion. In the book, Virginia Hamilton used a lot of descriptive words to make the book more interesting. Such as Onomatopoeias, the word hissed around them, stopping Mr. Small’s forward movement. It can make the readers have a vivid image in their mind, to make it more realistic through out sounds and word descriptions. Also, allusions can make people relate to the history and understand what something means.
Such as Pluto’s name, was from the Roman god of death. This allusion gives the readers a creep thought about Pluto and they can relate it both to what Pluto have done in the book and to his name’s meaning. To conclude, I think that The House of Dies Drear is effective because of its form, mystery and historical fiction, which made the book more interesting. The normal structure of plot but broke in to 2 pieces. Last the use of words and allusion in the book made it very successful.
