The Monkeys Paw and The Black Veil Essay Example for Free

The Monkeys Paw and The Black Veil Essay The writers of The Monkeys Paw and The Black Veil engage and sustain the readers interest by using a variety of narrative skills The writer of The Monkeys Paw is skilled at creating atmospheric setting. For example the way he describes the weather and surroundings of the house; The night was cold and wet. Even though they are a few words they are affective words as are these; Hark the wind. They describe the outside world in the way you can imagine it yourself. Another of the writers skills is the convincing characters. I think that the most convincing character is the sergeant. This is because I think you get a more detailed background of him more than anyone else, and a more detailed description. For example; Followed by a tall burley man, beady of followed by a tall burley man, beady of eye and rubicund face. This tells us more about his appearance and this makes you feel that you can relate to him a lot easier than any of the other characters. Another of his skills is the way he creates a sense of evil or mysterious things that have happened in the past. These types of things only crop up now and then in The Monkeys Paw and also in the The Black Veil. In the The Monkeys Paw it is when they find out about the first owner of the paw and how his last wish was for death. To me this indicates that the first two wishes were so drastic that he could not live with himself or the results of the wish and so he wished for his own death. To me this is the major part for things that had happened in the past here is what it says in the text; The first man had three. Yes. Was the reply; I dont know what the first two were, but the third was for death. Thats how I got the paw. Suggestions of evil yet to come are when are when the sergeant warns them that something will happen as a result of making the wish. As you read through the book this passage comes up; Better let it burn. This is said after the sergeant has through the paw on the fire. This suggests that the sergeant knows of the evil which might or will occur once the wishes have been granted and so he does want his friend or his family to be hurt so he attempts to destroy it. This makes the reader want to read on to see if this true. The authors use a skill of making you feel sorry or sympathetic for the different characters most of all Mr and Mrs White; He was the only one left to us. When Mr White says this you cant help but feel sorry for him and his wife, because it makes it sound like there had been more children who had died at a young age. This is also felt when the young man is brought back to his mother in the Black Veil, and we here that the old lady has nobody else left. Overall you can get emotionally involved in the story without noticing it.