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How Does Sharon A. Russell Create Horror In The Monkey's Paw

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Do you know how to define a horror story? Some people define it as a story with monsters, others define it as a scary story. In the story “What is the Horror Genre”, Sharon A. Russell decides the best way to define the horror genre is using the structure (suspense and setting), organization (parallel worlds, supernatural, and “ the fantastic”), the source of the horror, and one of two themes (good vs. evil or forbidden knowledge). Sharon A. Russell also explains three different ways suspense creates horror. Those three types are: suspense that is intensified by knowing it’s a horror story, the control of when and where we get our knowledge creates suspense, and our advanced knowledge creates suspense since we can anticipate future events. During class we figured out a fourth type of suspense; …show more content…

One example of a horror story is “The Monkey’s Paw”. “The Monkey’s Paw” is about a monkey’s paw that had a spell put on it by an old fakir in India. This monkey’s paw grants three wishes to three different men. However, each wish has pernicious side effects. “The Monkey’s Paw” portrays the White family’s suffering because of the monkey’s paw. Consequently, “The Monkey’s Paw” is an excellent display of a horror story. Suspense plays a major role in all horror stories. The story “The Monkey’s Paw” has numerous pieces of suspense contained in it. One dialogue that creates suspense in on page 108 and on line 90-92. The story says, “‘The first man had his three wishes. Yes.’ was the reply; ‘I don’t know what the first two were, but the third was for death. That’s how I got the paw.’” This creates suspense in one major way. W.W. Jacobs, the author of “The Monkey’s Paw”,

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