Dramatic Suspense In Dave Cullen's 'Columbine'

Dave Cullen, had published Columbine ten years after this tragic event had occurred. Two of the students at columbine high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had decided to try and create one of the biggest chaos’s trying to take out over 400 people. This school shooting took place in April of 1999, with 13 dead and around 24 wounded. This event had the country shook, having been one of the most well-known school shootings. In parts one and two of the book, Columbine, written by Dave Cullen, he creates suspense by the way he structures his writing, even though majority of the audience reading is aware of the outcome of this event. He accomplishes this by bringing in different types of irony, character development, and tone to help the reader form an attachment.

The way Cullen uses literary devices helps him create the suspense throughout his book. With this being said, Dave

For example, Cullen had written, “The teacher was alive, barely.”(Cullen 2009). This is one of the many times he had chosen to use dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than characters in the book. This quote is about Dave Sanders when he was bleeding out in the science room. The reader is aware that Sanders may not have much time, unlike his family, students, and the police. The suspense comes in as well, because Cullen has the reader wondering if Sanders will be rescued in time. One may believe dramatic irony did not play a big role in creating this book; however, it had helped in many situations to create an attachment with the readers and create suspense like in the quote above. Furthermore, Cullen did not use only one literary device throughout his book, not only did he use dramatic irony; he had also chosen to use