Analyze this!

okay a new blog got added, called Moving on just scroll down a little to find it, it was a previous draft i just finished, so it got posted near the other Jan. ones. sorry.

So, here is a part from the novel that i thought was a little chilling, I"m going to share it with you *yay!* and tell you why i think it's scarrrry.

"I awoke in the dark to the distinct sounds of lips, smacking near my ear, and from the foot of my bed came a gulping sound, as if some human being were gasping for air. I was terrified and paralyzed with fear, and abruptly my quilt was ripped off my body and my braid twisted from behind and pulled so hard my head was raised with a painful jerk off the bed."

Okay, so first off the imagery, "lips, smacking" I got an immediate image with this description. I actually took it very literally, and saw an image of someone, or thing, right next to her, and that's chilling. It's there but yet she can't see it or stop it, complete loss of control, like i talked about earlier. The image is clear, brief, and yet very strong. Also there is this back story about a little slave on the farm that she used to play with, and one day as punishment for sneaking extra food, she is forced to shove cotton into her mouth, and that is the sound she makes. So really, though unknown to Betsy, this is actually like her past coming back to haunt her. Which is what the spirit hints to be doing all along, just trying to make them pay for their past sins.

Okay, and obviously, another key description here is how she "awoke in the dark." What is a better scene for scariness other than "dark" and that she awoke, generally when this happens we come straight from sleep and are bewildered or unaware of our surroundings, so the reader gets a sense that she is being taken by surprise, or off guard. The darkness, implies a very eerie scene. Often times in the "dark" is when the jumpy stuff comes out, it is in literature, a time when we are most often scared or in danger, because we can't as easily see what is going on around us.

Next part, this is what really got me all into it, "I was terrified and paralyzed with fear, and abruptly..." The pace of the passage just picked up a lot for me, and i fell into it, i was completely absorbed into her fear. The idea that she was paralyzed it just emphasises her lack of control and when I get scared, that's also what i do just in that i freeze, you can't do anything, simply wait and hope for the best. That's a terrible feeling to experience and to read as well. And I just connected very completely to it.

So overall, i could go deeper into it, but i think i did a good job :)
But the overall effect of this passage is that, as a reader i connected. Though this is a very fictional situation- i still felt like i could easily be going through this because the emotions and actions are so real, i can feel my braid getting twisted. I thought the author just did a very good job with that aspect of it all.