Night Face Up Foreshadowing

Have you ever wondered how a story can cause you to feel as though you are a part of what occurs? The way an author creates this is through suspense and tension; an author can use suspense and tension to change the feel or direction of the story as well as make the reader see the story through the protagonist’s eyes. This allows the reader to get caught off guard by the unsuspected outcomes of the story. An example of this is how Julio Cortazar wrote “Night Face Up” using suspense to emulate the progression of the character and the perspective they have while keeping the reader invested in what is occurring. An author can use elements of literature to create suspense and tension by foreshadowing a possible ending, integrating settings to manipulate

Using foreshadowing an author can give details possibly explaining the way a story will end or conclude. For example in, “The Night Face Up” Julio Cortar uses foreshadowing when he says, “ “The road,” he thought. “I left the road.” His feet sank into a mattress of leaves and mud, and he couldn’t take a step without the twigs of the bushes lashing his torso and legs. Panting, knowing himself to be cornered despite the darkness and in silence, he lowered himself to listen. Perhaps the road was near, with the first light of day he would see it again. Nothing would help him find it now. The hand that clutched his dagger without his knowing rose like a scorpion from the marsh to his neck, where an amulet hung.

Barely moving his lips he murmured the corn prayer that brings good moons, and he begged to the Highest, watching over the good Motecas” (Cortazar, 6). This is an example of foreshadowing because it shows that the man was having dreams about a different reality with no exact reference to whether or not that was the correct reality. This means that the author uses foreshadowing as a way to impose the title and enforce how the title will be displayed in the story. This matters because to foreshadow the author must show small mementos leading the author in the direction of the future of the

An author can use manipulation of time to shape the possibilities of the story over small periods of time and stretch them. An example of this is when Julio Cortazar uses an integration of settings; in the text, it says, “ And each time he opened them it was the night and the moon once again, as they climbed the stairway, now with his head hanging down, and at the top were the bonfires, the red columns of perfumed smoke, and suddenly he saw the red rock, brilliant with dripping blood, and his feet, the swinging of the feet of the sacrificed, which they dragged in order to throw him rolling down the stairway on the north. With one last hope, he parted his eyelids, groaning to wake up.” (Cortazar, 6) This is an example of manipulation of time because it shows how an author uses the change of where a character is to make the reader anticipate what will happen. This means that for the author to manipulate time the author has to add elements like action to make it seem as though the story is progressing. This matters because makes endings unpredictable, so the point of it is to change the perspective of the reader throughout different parts of the plot line with the short time that passed in “The Night Face