Use of Suspense and Foreshadowing in the Detective Works and Writing

Suspense is the extraordinary inclination that a crowd of people experiences while hanging tight for the result of specific occasions. It essentially leaves the audience holding their breath and needing more. Like in the short story’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Where Are You Going Where Have You Been. The writers generate situations that might force readers to comprehend and want to continue reading to see what the characters are facing next.
Ambrose Bierce's short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, is a clear instance of suspenseful writing. Bierce's use of imagination such as how the Hangman intends to flee; specific details such as how the rope breaks and the Hangman evades execution; and figurative language, such as how the Hangman lastly ends, intensifies the action and keeps the listener loaded with fear. Although all these aspects affect how the tale works, it mostly affects how the tale is viewed by the viewer. In the tale, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the Author's use of Imagery, specific information, and figurative language provides the listener with a vibrant feeling of realism and expectation.

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor includes foreshadowing, or hints of serious risk, one is hit at the end of the tale by the unexpected violence. If the story is read a second time, however, the reader can see certain indications of foreshadowing that suggest the story's end. It is very convincing through the method of powerful imagery by O'Connor to foreshadow the individuals and the events in the tale. There are two important timing the story started with the grandma not wanting to travel to Florida, but to Tennessee where she has some friends to see. She is dressed very nicely with, 'A navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet”. Secondly, the foreshadowing of the family's death is the graveyard when they 'passed by a cotton field with five or six graves fenced'. It's not an accident that the 'five or six' burial numbers match the precise amount of individuals in the vehicle. Even though there are five individuals and a child. It is therefore suitable to say that the amount of five or six gravestone were indicated for the family.

In Where Are You Going Where Have You Been, Oates creates a tense mood in the reader's heart during her short story's last few pages by creating an intensely and rapidly growing fear within Connie. This fear that Connie has comes from the actions of Arnold Friend as well as his words of her not so new acquaintance. Arnold utilizes his speech and actions to force Connie and his pose to come with him. Arnold's word selection also affects the story's suspense build-up. Arnold tells Connie to the end of the plot that she's his 'lover,' and she doesn't understand precisely what that entails yet, but she's going to. It is disturbing that Arnold takes ownership of Connie and adds to the build-up of intense emotion. Furthermore, when Arnold forces Connie to come out or he'll break in, he convinces Connie that when Connie refuses to come in, she doesn't 'want to put her family into the situation.' This can be viewed as a threat to harm her family unless she gives it to him, which would obviously increase all feelings. As the tale ends, Arnold utilizes the insecurities of Connie to coax her out of the house by telling her that she is 'better than her family and that not one of them would go through a scenario like this for her.' The fact that Arnold turns against her a vulnerable portion of Connie can definitely scare the viewer and cause tension to increase. Overall, Arnold is the cause of Connie's fears, and what plays into this fear is the actions of Arnold as well as his words. To create this mood within the reader, Oates uses Arnold as the “bad guy”.

Suspense is a technique that writers use throughout their work to keep their readers ' interests alive. It is a feeling of expectation that something dangerous or scary is about to happen. The purpose of using this kind of anxiety in literature is to generate more worried viewers about the characters and establish a link with them. Hence, Authors like Flannery O'Connor, Ambrose Bierce's and Joyce Carol Oates all use elements of suspense to make their very well-known successful novels.