Wider Reading

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WIDER READING

Pre 20th Century - The Red Room

20th Century - Examination Day

Compare how Wells and Slesar develop suspense ih their 2 stories

For hundreds and hundreds of years there have been people who have the ability and imagination to write interesting, entertaining stories. Gradually, however, writing has evolved to satisfy the changing times. The stories I have looked at, The Red Room by HG Wells and Examination Day by Henry Slesar, were written about 100 years apart, and yet they have a common goal, to build up suspense. When you look closely at the two stories you can see differences, and similarities, in the way suspense is built up.

The most clear and obvious difference between the two is in the styles. Firstly, there are certain words and phrases that Wells uses that make it clear it is a Pre 20th Century piece of writing. He uses words such as 'apoplexy' and 'atavistic', which are both words that would not be used in 20th Century writing As well as this in Wells' story, like much of Pre 20th Century writing, there are certain phrases that are reversed. Phrases like ' said eight-and-twenty' and I are not used in writing nowadays. In 20th Century writing it would have been 'I said' and 'twenty eight'. Slesar too uses words and phrases that people in Wells' time would not have recognised, such as 'comic books', 'stuff' and 'loudspeaker'. This difference is probably the most significant in marking out the stories different time periods.

Another difference in style is the type of descriptive language that is used. Wells builds up suspense by describing the surroundings, 'a bronze group stood upon the landing, hidden from me by the corner of the wall. Slesar chooses to put more effort into describing his characters feelings and moods, using such phrases as 'his father rattled the paper in vexation' and 'shook hands gravely with his father', this creates a tense atmosphere. Wells spends a lot of time describing the corridor and rooms of the house. He writes things like, 'the long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty' and 'there were two big mirrors in the room, each with a pair of sconces bearing candles'. He creates tension and suspense through these surroundings by creating a mysterious, dark, shadowy picture in our head. This sort of descriptive language of the surroundings is typical of Pre 20th Century writing as, in those days there was no television and far less travel. People would have had very little of the places in the stories looked like. In this example, most of the readers would have never have been inside this sort of grand house/castle and, therefore would have no idea of what it would have looked like. A lot of description of the surroundings would be needed for the readers to create a picture of the area in which it is taking place. Nowadays we have television and travel more often, so when a place, like a castle, is mentioned we can automatically picture it.
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However, Slesar does include some descriptive language of the surroundings in his story. He pays particular attention to description of the exam room and building. Slesar gives the government building a very dull, unwelcoming feeling. He uses words and phrases such as 'cold' and 'official' to create a very negative feeling about the whole place. It is almost as if he is trying to get us to imagine it as a prison, describing it 'with long benches flanking metal tables' etc. Slesar is also showing us the lack of individualism that he believes comes with a totalitarian government. ...

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