How Does Andy Weir Use Suspense In The Martian

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The Martian won awards such as a #1 New York Times Bestseller, Goodreads Choice Awards Best Science Fiction, and the Audie Award for Science Fiction. An astronaut, Mark Watney, is on Mars with his team of astronauts. Mark gets stranded on Mars after his team mistakenly leaves him on Mars, and he has to figure out how to survive with little to no resources. In the novel, there are themes such as loneliness, betrayal, perseverance, and fear. Author Andy Weir uses skills to write The Martian including information from his own life, humor, and suspense. Andy Weir’s first book, The Martian, is so well written because a lot of it relates to himself and his interests.Andy Weir grew up in California, and his father was an accelerator physicist (“Andy Weir”). The Martian was influenced by Andy Weir’s job since he used to be a programmer, but is now a software engineer (“Menu”). Andy …show more content…

It keeps readers hooked to the book. The one time that Weir uses suspense is when Watney is doing all of his experiments to survive. “I’m going to be setting a fire. In the Hab [Mark’s habitat, or home on Mars]. On purpose. If you asked every engineer at NASA what the worst scenario for the Hab was, they’d answer “Fire” (Weir 29)”. Mark is starting a fire to create water. The book is more fun to read and feels more realistic because of the suspenseful, but realistic situations Mark gets in. Andy Weir’s suspenseful writing makes Mark Watney a smarter character because the writing makes it suspenseful so he has to act fast. “He listened intently to the hiss, then he touched his broken faceplate. Then he looked out the window again. “You kidding me?” he said.” (Weir 157). This is whenever Mark has to figure out what to do when his faceplate breaks, and if it is open too long, he will die. This moment creates a lot of suspense. Type conclusion statement here. The use of suspense in The Martian hooks readers and makes it more