How To Build Suspense In The Tell Tale Heart

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The novel, Ruined by Paula Morris and the short story, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe contain similar and different characteristics throughout. In the book, the main character, Rebecca, is initially from the Big Apple. She is forced to move to New Orleans with a “relative” once her father traveled to China for work. Little did Rebecca know what was in store for her in the upcoming months that she would be staying in the old-fashioned city. The snobby children, with a rich history, practically rule everywhere they go in the area, from the school to the streets. Within this six-month time frame, multiple problems arose around Rebecca and her current living conditions. Paula Morris uses the key element of suspense to keep the reader interested and focused on the story at hand. Moreover, Poe also uses multiple literary devices that …show more content…

The two authors had similar intentions on the plot of each literary text. Furthermore, these decisions had influenced the tone of suspense dramatically. The works had both started innocent and took a darker turn as the plot continued on its railroad track; a specific path Poe or Morris leads one down can determine the ominous impression they implement into the stories as a whole; the techniques expressed in Ruined allowed the book to obtain a stronger hold on the reader’s interest, setting the plot in motion. Without Paula Morris’s tactical strategy, the novel would not have been as attention grabbing as it was. Moreover, Poe’s story contains dragged out scenes that increases the attitude of it. The descriptive wording almost hides the plot line in itself. Although the different stories differ in the amount of suspense applied to the text, each are similar in some ways as they are distinct. Tone gives insight on the feelings the characters in the novels perceive