How Does Harper Lee Build Suspense In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem and Scout live in Maycomb County with their father Atticus. Scout tells a series of events leading up to when her brother, Jem, breaks his arm. The kids go to school, and spend their summers with Dill, a friend who lives in Meridian, but comes to town in the summer. Atticus is a white lawyer, who is given a case to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, of rape. Harper Lee uses description, inner thinking, and symbolism to build suspense in the book.
To start, Harper Lee uses description to build suspense in To Kill a Mockingbird. After dinner one night, Jem and Scout are in the bedroom. Scout suspects that there is a snake under her bed, so Jem gets a broom to see what is hiding. “Jem made a tentative swipe under the bed. I looked over the foot to see if a snake would come out”(pg. 186). This description builds a picture in the reader’s head of what is happening, and builds suspense for the reader to see what will be under the bed. As Jem swipes the broom …show more content…
After the Maycomb County Halloween Pageant, Jem and Scout have to walk home by themselves. Scout is in her costume for the play she was in, but forgot her shoes at the auditorium. Jem stops Scout many times because he is scared that they are being followed by someone. “We slowed to a crawl. I asked Jem how Cecil could follow us in the dark, it looked to me like he’d bump into us from behind”(pg. 349). In this instance, Harper Lee includes darkness. Darkness is used to symbolize what is evil and unknown. As Jem and Scout are walking in the darkness they are curious and frightened from not knowing who it is that is following them. While reading this passage, one knows something evil and mysterious is going to happen because of how the darkness is used and described. This builds a suspenseful feeling for the reader, as well as Scout and Jem as they continue walking in the still
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