The Use Of Suspense In 'The Pedestrian'

Many authors around the world have different techniques in creating suspense when writing stories. Suspense is like a hook… it keeps the reader on the edge and entertained. In the following two stories, both authors create suspense in slightly different ways but overall the concept was the same… using a character’s dialogue, thoughts, and personality to generate suspense in their story. In the story, “The Pedestrian”, the author, Ray Bradbury describes the desolate streets in the time A.D., 2053. The story depicts a lone man wandering the streets all by himself. As the story continues on, the author gradually starts to develop suspense as this lone man meets a sole police car on the deserted streets. The conversation between the police car and the lone man, Mr. Mead seemed to manufacture the lone police car as a suspicious, mysterious figure. The author uses figurative language and dialogue to suggest the “person” talking in the car may not be a human as well as portraying the police car’s mysterious personality.
“‘Your name?’ said the police car in a metallic whisper. He couldn’t see the men in it for there were bright
This man feels like the eyes are haunting him. So to get rid of the haunting the man decides to kill the old man in his slip. The author creates suspense by describing the man’s thoughts of the murder. Every creak and groan written into the story helps add to the suspense. Then as the man kills the old man and separates him into parts and bury him under the floor, some police officers come over and more suspense is built. The murderer's conscience started bothering him and he’s ready to explode with guilt. The author creates the suspense of whether the man would turn himself in by describing every single phenomenon that the man hears and see and feel. The dialogue also influences the suspense