To analyze an author's use of suspense, start by looking carefully at a story's structure. You'll need to identify the parts that contribute to the story's suspense and then explain how these parts help create suspense. Click through the steps below to learn how to analyze a writer's use of suspense in a particular story.
Structure
Create
Explain
Identify and describe the basic
structure of the story.
As you read, keep in mind the diagram
of a story's structure from earlier in
this lesson. Read the summary
statements below parts of the story
"The Run." Where does each event or
detail belong in the story's
structure? Match each example to the
correct stage of the story's plot.
Identify the parts of the story that
create suspense.
Look at the events and details from "The
Run" again in the order they happen in
the story.
- The author describes the characters, Carl, James, and Cindy.
- Cindy is about to sled down the icy hill for the first time.
- Cindy's sled gets out of control as she flies down the icy hill for the second time. She crashes into a tree. We don't know yet if she is seriously hurt or not.
- We learn the results of Cindy's second sledding attempt: She has crashed into a tree again.
- Cindy is lying in a heap at the bottom of the hill. We learn that she is OK. She hears her brothers' laughter and knows they will come help her.
The points of greatest suspense are when Cindy is about to sled down the hill for the first time and when her sled gets out of control the second time and she crashes.
Explain how those parts create
suspense.
Read the following passage from "The
Run."
And within seconds she is flying, the
runners barely skimming the ice. Her
speed is simply unthinkable. She
squints into the roaring wind, aiming
for the rapidly looming ramp. And
then, incredibly, she hits it square
on.
The sled and its rider rise from the
ramp into the crystal blue air. Cindy
wrenches the handles hard to the left.
Then she braces for the landing, ready
to dig in her boots to break her slide
before reaching the stream.
What details add to the suspense in this passage?
Suspenseful details include the "unthinkable" speed of the sled, the sensory details of the "roaring wind" and "looming ramp," and the description of the sled rising into the air. Just as Cindy is suspended in midair for that moment, the reader is in suspense over what will happen when she lands.
