“Suspense in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The River'” by Alyson Mosquera Dutemple (fiction ’19)
A craft essay by Alyson Mosquera Dutemple (fiction ’19), published by Craft.
Suspense in Flannery O’Connor’s “The River”
Long before we discover that the main character, a little boy named Harry, will drown in the final moments of Flannery O’Connor’s “The River,” we are unsettled while reading the story. On the surface, the main actions before the drowning are not particularly threatening (Harry visits with a new babysitter, takes a trolley ride, and attends an informal religious service down by the river), but O’Connor makes specific choices that turn these ostensibly mundane activities into ones that seem rife with potential danger. Using setting, characterization, and pacing, O’Connor infuses even the smallest moments of Harry’s day with heightened suspense, building piece by piece to the cathartic but fatal final moments in the story.
[…continue reading at Craft.]
