One incident where the restriction added tension was when the readers were told that Hooper went up to the attic “as soon as the idea had come into his head”. The readers were not introduced to the idea her had come up with to deal with Kingshaw. The narrator only went into describing the attics and told the readers “everything smelled old and dry and hot”. After awhile, “a huge spider, with lumpy, greenish-grey back, scutted out” and Hooper “would have used it to frighten Kingshaw, if the new idea hadn’t come to him”. This leaves the readers clueless and anxious to know about his plans because they know that Hooper has something scarier than the spider in mind to frighten Kingshaw. The readers are then told that Hooper “stroked it” and “lifted the thing up carefully” because “it was very large” thinking that “it might disintegrate”. This arouses feelings of suspense and excitement to know what that “thing” might be because Hooper “was a little afraid of it himself” and he did not dare to hold it near to his body. The readers were only allowed to know what that “thing” was when Kingshaw turns on his bedroom light and sees the stuffed crow. Due to the lack of knowledge and understanding about Hooper, readers tend to share Kingshaw’s confusion and fears about the mysterious Hooper.
Another technique used by Susan Hill is that of triggering the five senses in the readers. A very good example was when Kingshaw runs away to the tin shed in despair, Hooper jumps at the chance to lock him in the shed and lead him on to hallucinating about his surroundings causing the atmosphere to be intensely frightening. The shed was “airless and very dark” and “it smelled faintly of pig muck, and old, dried hen pellets”. With “no window, no light at all”, the readers have an increased awareness of Kingshaw’s predicament and when he “stuffed his fist into his mouth, in terror”, the readers begin to place themselves in his shoes and also feel the dampness of the tin shed. The sense of touch then begins to rage when “his jeans felt wet” and a kind of nausea when he “began to vomit all over the sacks” because “something ran out of the sacks over his hands”. Kingshaw’s trauma also haunts him in his slumber through the Punch and Judy show and after he wakes up, Hooper starts to scare him with descriptions of anonymous creatures that may be in the dark shed with him.
All these would leave any 10-year old boy to panic when imprisoned in total darkness, especially the claustrophobic Kingshaw. Kingshaw screamed and beats the metal walls until his hands bled. The tension reaches the apogee as his situation was so realistic towards the readers when they already sympathise with Kingshaw so much at this later part of the book.
Hence we can see very clearly that Susan Hill’s implementation of techniques in involving the readers’ emotions are very successful.
Done By: Ng Wan-Yi Delia (26)
Sec 4C2.2
