Uneasy Homecoming

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Uneasy Homecoming By Will F Jenkins
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Building Suspense

• Time
• The last thin sliver of crimson sun went down
  below the worlds edge.
• The safety of day is over
• Sense of descending into hell
• Darkness encourages your imagination to run wild
• Place
• Lonely, isolated
• Sense of vulnerability
• Plays on a common fear of being alone in an empty
  house

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Building Suspense

• Immediate sense of uneasiness
• From the title
• From the first sentence
• Uncertainty (for Connie and the reader) about
  whether the threat is real or imagined
• Foreshadowing (hints of trouble), e.g. the
  window, motorbike, telephone conversation
• Dramatic irony
• The author makes Connies fear universal
• But it was also the unnerving realization that
  the fears shed had about Them, the men who prey
  on others, were not entirely groundless.

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Building Suspense

• Pacing
• The author releases details steadily, bit by bit,
  so the reader doesnt get a chance to relax
• He confirms the presence of a burglar - thereby
  easing the tension - but then immediately
  escalates it again by introducing the threat of
  violence
• Keeps the reader guessing
• He suggests possibilities but they dont work
  out (e.g. the telephone, riding the motorbike)
• The audience wonders how she is going to get away
• We are unsure of the burglars identity right up
  to the end (Tom??) even though she knows who it is

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Building Suspense

• Word choice
• Dread, red dying sun, uneasy feeling intensified,
  restlessness, apprehension, silence, absurd,
  unbearable, infinite despair, unnerving, fears,
  etc, etc
• Ellipsis
• So he would go into the bedroom and look under
  the bed
• Senses
• Uses sight and smell