Close Reading- Kiara

A Gathering Light Section 8- Close Reading Page 174

A. Select a section of the novel that shows TENSION. 3-4 paragraphs. B. copy it and and annotate the section so that we can see how the author has used particular techniques to create the sense of tension.

You can't argue with the dead. No matter what you say, they get the last word. I have to try to have it out with Grace as I sit with her. I tell her that she was wrong to have given me her letters and that sneaking around on her behalf will cost me my job if I'm not careful and that I need my wages because I am to be married and they'll help pay for a stove and pots and pans. I tell her that it is entirely possible that Carl Graham is really Carl Graham and that Chester Gillette is someone else entirely and the fact that Grace called Carl "Chester" and wrote "Chester, I have done nothing but cry" and "Chester, do you miss me"- while certainly a big fat coincidence- proves nothing. I tell her I have taken plenty of risks for her already and that I won't take another. I say that I'm not going to read any of her letters, either, and if it was her intention all along to get me to, then she is very selfish and underhanded. Was. She was very selfish and underhanded. I look at her arm as I argue with her, because I don't want to look at her face anymore. Notice that the fabric of her sleeve is puckered from dampness. I see tiny hand stitches where some lace was added at the cuffs, and I wonder if she had made those stitches herself or if maybe her mother had. Or if she had a sister who is good at sewing, like my sister Abby is. I wonder how she got her nickname, Billy. It was Chester- no, Carl, his names is Carl- had called her. Did he pa give it to her? Maybe she had a brother who called her that. I sounded like a nickname a brother would give. Lawton was the first who'd called me Mattie. Tile would've been much prettier. Or Millie. Or Tilda. Or even Hilda. I open another letter.

South Ostelic June 20, 1906 My Dear Chester- I am writing to tell you that I am coming back to Cortland. I simply can't stay here any longer. Mamma worries and wonders why I cry so much and I am just about sick. Please come and take me away to some place, dear...My headache is dreadful tonight. I am afraid you won't come and I am so frightened, dear....You have said you will come and sometimes just know you will, but then I think of other things and I am just as certain you won't come.....Chester, there isn't another girl in the whole world as miserable as I am tonight, and you have made me feel so. Chester I don't mean that, dear. You have always been so awfully good to me and I know you always will be. You just won't be a coward, I know...

I was hoping for good news in that letter. I try another one.

South Ostelic June 21, 1906 My Dear Chester- I am just ready for bed, and am so ill I could not help writing to you. I never came down this morning until nearly 8 o'clock and I fainted about 19 o'clock, and stayed in ed until nearly noon. This p.m my brother brought me a letter from one of the girls, and after I read the letter I fainted again,. Chester, I came home because I thought I could trust you. I do not think I will be here after next Friday. This girl wrote me that you seemed to be having an awfully good time and she guessed my coming home had done you good, as you had not seemed cheerful in weeks.....I should have known, Chester, that you didn't care for me, but somehow I have trusted you more than anyone else.... Voices drift past the window. Mens voices. I freeze. *The author has used short snappy sentences to show tension. “.....thinks his name is Gillette.” That's Mr. Morison. “Who?” That's Mr. Sperry. “Mattie Gokey.” “She did. Said she heard the girl call him Gillette. Chester Gillette.” *The author wrote Chester's last name first then his full name too suggest that there is suspense and mystery. “Well, he'll, Andy, I called the police department in Albany and told them that a Carl Graham had likely drowned and asked them to notify the family. That's what it said in the register, 'Carl Graham, Albany,' not Chester Gillette.....”* The author has made Mr Sperry justify for himself about why he told the police to notify Carl Graham's family. The voices fade. * Again, the author has used short sentences. I can tell that the men are walking across the west lawn, from the direction of the boathouse. They are headed for the porch, and I know that it's there habit to have a drink together at night and that the whiskey is kept in the parlor. I bolt out of the parlor, race down the hallway, through the foyer, and up the main staircase. * The author has described where Mattie is going in short effective phrases which gives the impression that Mattie is running very fast. I make it to the first landing just as the front door opens, and duck down behind the railing, not daring to move, not daring to breathe, lest a floorboard creak or the banister rattle. “...and there's Gillette's down Cortland way, too,” Mr. Sperry says, closing the door behind him. * The author has made sure that Mattie can't hear everything that Mr Sperry and Mr Morrison say. “Well-heeled bunch. One of them owns a big skirt factory.” “South Ostelic, where the girls from.....that's near Cortland, isn't it?” Mr Morison says. * the author has used ellipsis to show that Mr Morrison is unsure about where Grace was born. “Thirty-odd miles outside it. Mrs. Morrison ever get hold of her folks?” “Yes, she did. Farm family.” Mr Sperry takes a deep breath and blows it out again. * Mr Sperry adds that Grace was from a farm family and then sighs showing that he feels sorry for her family. “It's a strange thing. You'd think one would be near the other.” * Mr Morrison changes the subject quickly which shows that he too feels sorry for Grace's family. “What would? The towns?” “The bodies. In the water. You'd have thought we'd find one near the other. * It is clear that he is in doubt about where Chester's body is. There's no current speak of in the bay. Nothing strong enough to move a body, least ways.” * Another statement adding to the fact that he thinks Chester is somehow alive and has escaped. He is silent for a few seconds, then says, “You fancy a nightcap, Andy?” “I do.” “I'll get the bottle. Lets have it on the porch, though. Wouldn't be right to drink in the parlor. Not tonight. ” Mr Sperry disappears down the hall and Mr Morrison busies himself at the reception desk, opening his mail and sorting telephone messages and checking the telegraph machine. Mr Morrison's character starts looking through everything in the room just as his accompaniment leaves the room. The seems like a very common scene in a horror movie. I stay out at the landing. A few minutes go by, then Mr Sperry emerges with a bottle in one hand and two glasses in the other. “Andy,” he says quietly. “She was so young. Just a girl.” Mr Morrison doesn't seem to hear him. The previous scene when he was looking through everything in the room shows us that he wasn't ignoring Mr Sperry, he was simply preoccupied and had found something very interests. Again this seems like a classic scene from a horror movie. “Dwight, look at this,” he says, coming out from behind the desk. “What is it?” “A wire from Albany. From the chief of police. About Carl Graham.” “What's it say?” “It says there's no such person by that name living in the city.” The two men look at each other, then they go out on the porch. This shows that they are realising that Mattie was right and that 'Carl Graham' may not actually be 'Carl Graham'. This is the last thing they want to find out because it means that Grace Brown's death, may not actually be as innocent as they thought. And I run back to the attic and shove Grace Brown's letters back under my mattress and climb into bed and squeeze my eyes shut and less my hands over my ears and pray and pray for sleep to come. A lot of things happen in one sentence which gives the impression that Mattie is very worried and run very fast to get out of the position she was in.