How Does Cormier Create Suspense In The Middle Of The Night

Creating Suspense
As he dropped the smoking gun out of his hand, he scanned the sea of people lying on the ground in front of him; an ocean of red flooded the crowd. “What have you done?!” a voice called. In movies, directors exploit sounds, acting, and lighting to illustrate suspense to their viewers, whereas in novels, authors must confide mostly on their use of detail and emotion in the text to convey suspense. In the novel, In the Middle of the Night, Robert Cormier creates suspense through his lack of explanation about events, use of emotion, visual detail, and key words; the best examples of Cormier’s techniques include: when Lulu dies and when Lulu meets Denny, but the identity of the caller was predictable.
One example of Cormier
creating suspense in this novel was when Lulu died in the circus accident. He writes: “Ten minutes later, Lulu was dead. And the nightmare began” (9). Cormier ends the preface with this quote. Suspense overwhelms the reader because they don’t know how Lulu died; he left them wondering and encouraged to read on with his lack of explanation about Lulu’s death. Later on in the novel Cormier writes, “My sister, I cried. She’s trapped in there...My sister. She might be dead” (44). Cormier displays a feeling of suspense when writing this through the emotion of the brother. The reader can picture Lulu’s brother screaming and pleading for someone to help his sister, while getting pulled back by the people helping with the tragedy. This makes the reader sympathize for the brother and continue reading. At the hospital, Lulu’s younger brother questions her, “Tell me what happened. Nothing happened, she said.” He pushes on and says, “Didn't you feel anything, Lulu? No. Don't you remember anything?” (47). Cormier builds suspense by making it crystal clear that Lulu does not want to talk about her accident, making her sound very cold and bitter. The reader is still not fully aware of what happened to Lulu because of Cormier’s purposeful lack of information about her death. Cormier ends Part II with this chapter and continually has the reader hooked and wanting to continue reading.
Cormier raised the suspense in In the Middle of the Night by using extraordinary detail when describing the meeting of Lulu and Denny on Halloween. He writes, “Now this moment: what he had been waiting for, standing on the corner...” (166). Cormier creates suspense at this moment because the reader can envision Denny anxiously waiting for Lulu’s arrival. They don't know what will happen to Denny or what Lulu will say or do to him. Shortly after Cormier writes, “Without warning from his blind side, a car pulled up, headlights sweeping the sidewalk...” (167). The author does an excellent job of building suspense here with keywords like “without warning.” This has the reader surprised and on the edge of their seat, eager to read on. Then, “Hands slipped around his eyes, blinding him, soft flesh against his cheek, then that sultry telephone voice in his ear: Hello, Denny. I'm so glad we’re finally getting together. Then urgent and commanding: Drive, Baby, drive” (167-168). Cormier displays suspense many times in this short quote. He uses extreme detail to help the reader visualize Lulu in the backseat, with her face gently brushing Denny’s and speaking to him with the same seductive voice as before. The reader feels uncomfortable and scared for Denny in this moment, silently wishing they could help him in some way. Cormier also uses intense words like “urgent” and “commanding” to express a feeling of suspense. The reader wonders where Lulu is taking Denny, as well as what she will do to him.
Although there are many more instances when Cormier develops a feeling of suspense, one event in particular was definitely predictable.
In chapter three, Lulu and her brother converse in the hospital once again. Lulu says, “Now it’s the son,...the sin of the father will be visited upon by the son” (17). The reader can easily infer the meaning of Cormier's words in this quote: the father is John Paul, and Lulu is seeking revenge on him by going through his son, Denny. Also in chapter three, Lulu’s brother thinks, “What I want to say is: Please don't call. Leave him alone...Especially this year.” It is obvious that the caller is Lulu because her younger brother wishes she would not call someone anymore, and the Colbert family is getting an overwhelming amount of calls. He also doesn’t approve of Lulu calling so much in this particular year, which is the anniversary of the tragedy. Later in the novel, when Denny becomes close with Lulu, he asks her, “Why do you call him?” She replies with, “I don't know about the others. I only know that I can't sleep at night and that's why I call” (128). By adding this conversation Cormier solidifies any doubts the reader may have had about about Lulu being the caller. The reader can infer by the word “others” that the caller was one of the people affected by the balcony collapsing. Through Cormier’s numerous clues, the reader can easily predict Lulu was the
caller.
Overall, In the Middle of the Night consisted of extremely suspenseful events. Cormier applied his exceptional writing methods into the text to create this feeling throughout. He used vagueness and emotion when describing Lulu’s death, and utilized visual detail and key words to recount Lulu and Denny’s meeting. Even though the identity of the caller was predictable, the author mastered the use of these techniques to exhibit suspense.