Diction And Foreshadowing In Death By Scrabble By Charlie Fish

The short story “Death by Scrabble” by Charlie Fish is about a tense and cynical boardgame session between and husband and wife with an unexpected deadly twist. Fish utilizes diction and foreshadowing to build suspense and keep a cold murderous mood throughout the story. The author also exercises a quick, cert, and highly emotional style of writing in order to maintain the tension between the reader and the narrator.

The diction in this story is specifically chosen to create an aggressive and uncomfortable state between the narrator and reader. The homicidal phrases intend to keep the reader on their toes, waiting to read about the cold-blooded murder any second. The narrator states “I hate my wife.” A total of four times throughout the story.

Line by line the reader is pulled closer to the ending we think we are going to receive. Every scrabble word is a steppingstone to the finale. Very clearly beginning with BEGIN. After this, every scrabble word played reveals something that’s going to happen in the near future. However the most relevant piece of foreshadowing is revealed very early on. “I can hear buzzing insects outside. I hope they’re not bees. My cousin Harold swallowed a bee when he was nine, his throat swelled up and he died. I hope that if they are bees, they fly into my wife’s throat.” (Fish 1) Although it seems like nothing but the story of an unfortunate accident from his childhood, when paired with the last paragraph of the story it’s very clearly much more than that. “I gasp with surprise and vindication-and the B that I was chewing on get lodged in my throat. I try to cough. My face goes red. My throat swells. I drew blood clawing at my neck.” ( Fish 4) The reference to his cousin essentially choking on a bee was hinting to the narrator later choking on a B and dying despite his strangely magical attempt at murdering his wife and his much more aggressive thoughts on doing so. It’s also rather ironic that he ended up dying while his wife watched, doing nothing. As if she knew his feelings towards her, as if she had the very same thought. Which perhaps we knew when another form of foreshadowing was revealed. “My wife plays CAUTION”