Name: Directions: Complete the following questions as you learn about the different ways that authors can create suspense. b Suspense Guided Practice Learning Targets: CCSS RL.3, 4, 5 * To define suspense * To identify different techniques authors and directors use to create suspense. * To identify suspense in various formats * To distinguish between different types of suspense 1. Identify how conflict in Harry Potter creates suspense. Give me Harry Potter, said Voldemort s voice, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight. The silence swallowed them again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and scared, But he s there! Potter s there! Someone grab him! 2. Identify the conflict in The Goonies and explain how it creates suspense for viewers. 3. Identify how the setting creates suspense in The Black Ferris by Ray Bradbury. The carnival had come to town like an October wind, like a dark bat flying over a cold lake, bones rattling in the night, mourning sighing, whispering up the tents in the dark rain. Peter and Henry ran to the lonely carnival grounds. The Midway was silent. The grey tents hissed in the wind like giant prehistoric wings. At eight o clock perhaps, ghastly lights would flash on, voiced would shout, music would go out over the lake.
4. Identify dramatic irony and how it creates suspense in Horton Hears a Who. Believe me, said Horton. I tell you sincerely, my ears are quite keen and I heard him quite clearly. I know there s a person down there. And, what s more, quite likely there s two. Even three. Even four. Quite likely a family, for all that we know! A family with children just starting to grow. So, please, Horton said, as a favor to me, try not to disturb them. Just please let them be. I think you re a fool! laughed the sour kangaroo and the young kangaroo in her pouch said, Me, too! You re the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool. 5. Identify dramatic irony in the scene from The Birds. Then, explain how it creates suspense. 6. Identify the foreshadowing in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Then, determine how it creates suspense. but a singular sense of impending calamity, that should have indeed served me as a warning, drove me onward. 7. Identify the foreshadowing in the excerpt from Hunger Games. Determine how it creates suspense. Her first reaping. She s about as safe as you can get, since she s only entered once. I wouldn t let her take out any tesserae. But she s worried about me. That the unthinkable might happen. I protect Prim in every way I can, but I m powerless against the reaping.
8. * How is foreshadowing used to create suspense in the clip from Jaws? * Are there any other types of suspense used in the clip from Jaws? Explain. 9. Can you identify the slowdown method in the following passage from The Haunted House by Alvin Schwartz? The old preacher took up his Bible again, but before he could start reading, he heard footsteps coming up the cellar stairs. He sat watching the door to the cellar, and the footsteps kept coming closer and closer. He saw the doorknob turn, and when the door began to open, he jumped and hollered, What do you want? 10. Explain how this passage from The Monkey s Paw by W.W. Jacobs shows the slow down method. Then, explain how this creates suspense. There was another knock, and another. The old woman with a sudden wrench broke free and ran from the room. Her husband followed to the landing, and called after her appealingly as she hurried downstairs. He heard the chain rattle back and the bottom bolt drawn slowly and stiffly from the socket.... He was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If he could only find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment...
11. * Identify the way the slow down method was used in this clip from Lord of the Rings. * How does it create suspense? 12. Identify how Poe creates suspense in The Cask of Amontillado by delaying the answer to a question. Are any other techniques used to create suspense in the passage? Fortunato had hurt me a thousand times and I had suffered quietly. But then I learned that he had laughed at my proud name, Montresor, the name of an old and honored family. I promised myself that I would make him pay for this-that I would have revenge. You must not suppose however, that I spoke of this to anyone. I would make him pay, yes; but I would act only with the greatest care. I must not suffer as a result of taking my revenge. A wrong is not made right in that manner. And also the wrong would not be made right unless Fortunato knew that he was paying and knew who was forcing him to pay. 13. * Identify how the director of Signs creates suspense by delaying an answer to a question. *Do you notice any other types of suspense in the video clip? 14. What are some book titles or movie titles you can think of that create conflict simply with a title?
15. What examples of suspense through selective information can you think of from books or movies? 16. Identify how the author gives selective information that creates suspense in the following passage from Hook by Alvin Schwartz. Are there any other types of suspense used in this example? Donald turned on the radio and found some music. But an announcer broke in with a news bulletin. A murderer had escaped from the state prison. He was armed with a knife and was headed south on foot. His left hand was missing. In its place, he wore a hook. 17. How does the director create suspense using selective information in the following scene from Jurassic Park? What other methods of suspense do you see in the film clip? 18. Consider the different types of figurative language. What types do you think could create suspense and how so?
19. Read the following stanza from Poe s The Raven. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"-- Merely this and nothing more. * How does Poe create suspense through alliteration? * Are there any other features that create suspense? 20. How does the Jurassic Park scene use figurative language and sound to create suspense? 21 Identify the imagery in the following passage from Hunt for the 7 th by Christine Morton-Shaw. Can you identify any other methods that the author used to create suspense? It s a child, I think, because they seem to like playing games. They take me by surprise by rearranging the flower pots or setting the swing swaying under the apple tree. But that s happened only twice. Most of the time they just come up behind me. They move up very close. I can hear their breathing, sometimes even feel it on my neck.
22. How does mood create suspense in The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury? Are there any other techniques used that also create suspense? You been here now for three months, Johnny, so I better prepare you. About this time of year, he said, studying the murk and fog, something comes to visit the lighthouse. 23. After viewing Rear Window, identify the mood used in the film clip. Then, determine how the mood creates suspense. Can you identify any other techniques that are used to create suspense? 24. Can you think of any other movies or books with surprise endings?