HG Wells - The War Of The Worlds

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HG Wells – The War Of The Worlds

HG Wells uses literacy techniques in The War Of The Worlds to add tension and create a better more frightening atmosphere. He uses four main types of literacy techniques that are:

  • Juxtaposition
  • Pathetic fallacy
  • Omniscient viewpoint
  • And cliffhangers

The meaning of these are as followed:

  • Juxtaposition – this is where two completely different facts are put next to each other to make a comparison that stands out clearly and completely changes the atmosphere.
  • Pathetic fallacy – this is where the weather matches the mood of some one.
  • Omniscient viewpoint – the author and the reader knows what is going to happen but the character does not.
  • Cliffhanger – this means main things 1. A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense. 2. A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode. 3. A contest so closely matched that the outcome is uncertain until the end.
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Examples of these four techniques are found in the HG Wells The War Of The Worlds. The examples I picked out especially for this work are the ones I feel are most important and best show what these techniques. These were picked out of the book.

Juxtaposition:

“And this was the little world in which I had been living in securely for years, this fiery chaos!”

“About six in the evening, as I sat at tea with my wife in the summerhouse talking vigorously about the battle that was lowering upon us, I heard a muffled detonation from the common, ...

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