Book Analysis: Cruel Summer

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Cruel Summer Essay

Cruel Summer is a fiction novel written by James Dawson - A story about death, drama and deceit. The beginning chapter is crucial when understanding the importance of Janie jumping off the cliff. This essay will argue that the first scene of this novel it pulls in the readers attention, introduces characters and their personalities and it sets the scene. It is the first scene that allows the reader to see the bigger story.

The opening scene in the first chapter of Cruel Summer is crucial when setting up the storyline as Jane ‘committing suicide’ is important adding drama and suspense to the novel. It the first chance to grab the reader into the book making them want to keep reading due to the intense sentences that engage …show more content…

For example the text in the opening sentence of the novel ‘Against the white cliffs, the girl in the red dress was as vivid as a drop of blood. Even by moonlight, the rugged shoreline was visible for miles at sea.’. These two very first sentences of the book immediately set the mood; At the top of the white cliffs hanging over the beach by the sea at night time. Straight away, you are told the time and setting which then influences the rest of that chapter. You feel like you are in the setting, watching from the background, at whats going on. Without the setting and time provided in the text you don’t know anything. The setting also changes the way the reader feels as at the start of the book when Janie is standing at the top of the cliff the reader would feel nervous.

In conclusion, this essay has argued, the novel Cruel Summer has a first chapter in which is essential. It pulls in the readers attention, introduces the characters and it sets the scene. Without the first chapter, the reader would be lost, being unaware of the characters developed personality and not knowing where the setting is based. The first chapter pulls in the readers