James Clarence's Use Of Foreshadowing In 'August Heat'

You 're sitting at home on a Saturday night and decide to watch a scary movie. It 's getting close to the end. At this point you 're wondering what will happen next. The movie ends with a suspenseful ending. But what led you into getting so into the movie? The short story “August Heat” created a sense of suspense using the use of foreshadowing throughout the story, the main characters’ sense of a bad feeling and a cliffhanger at the end of the story.

The use of foreshadowing with describing the scene, setting, and characters made the story more suspenseful. It 's a hot August day, James Clarence goes out, then he starts to notice the thunder starting to come in. He comes upon a gate with a sign and having the urge to go inside. When arriving and meeting the man inside, its the same exact man he drew in the early morning. A good description matches with the drawing. “We are sitting in a long, low room beneath the eaves. Atkinson has sent his wife to bed. He himself is busy sharpening some

He 's an artist, in good health, and making his money. Heading to the neighborhood pool, an idea came to his mind. He sketches a descriptive man on trial. Then on a walk, he comes upon a gate that belongs to Chas. Atkinson. “A sudden impulse made me enter” (94). It 's getting late, so James is trying to get home, but his home is an hour walk home. Chas starts listing out ways James could get hurt speaking in the tone of a joke. But James doesn 't seem to be taking it as a joke. Hes says to stay till twelve o’clock. Why twelve o’clock? “For I felt uneasy. There was something unnatural, uncanny, in meeting this man. I tried at first to persuade myself that I had seen him before, that his face, unknown to me, had found a place in some out-of-the-way corner of my memory.” (94,95) Trying to convince yourself if you 've seen the person before giving you that supernatural