Thursday, February 2, 2012
Engl 481 Post 3
Mary Wilkins Freeman's The Long Arm is a tale of intrigue and suspense. The deceptive use of false clues and subtle hints, which make much more sense in hindsight, lead to misconceptions and false conclusions. During class today we discussed the story and when we all figured out who had killed the father. My group mates for the most part all accurately guessed the correct murderer by about half-way through the story. I didn't know who the murder was until it was explicitly stated. From this I arrived at two important conclusions. First Freeman used suspense and false clues to great effect within the mystery genre of her story to keep the reader guessing. The second conclusion was that I would make a terrible detective.
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What clues did they get that you missed, Ryan? Do you suppose it's due to reading different sorts of literature?
ReplyDeleteI also failed to figure out who had killed Sarah's father until it was blatantly revealed in the story. I would make a terrible detective as well, but it makes for an easier thrill when seeing suspense movies or when reading stories such as this one. One thing that I learned during our group discussion about this story is that all of those false clues that are planted and that lead you and I to believe in the guilt of someone else besides the murderer are called "Red Herrings." Just an interesting fact that I didn't know before.
ReplyDelete~Amanda Renslow