How Does Pym Build Suspense

In the short story The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe, the protagonist Pym faces many dangerous adventures developing suspenseful scenes. Pym’s good friend Augustus hides Pym below the deck of his father’s whaling boat. The area is very small resembling a coffin. Pym is trapped below deck without enough food or water supply, he faces starvation and delirium. As time continues Pym eventually struggles with breathing due to the lack of air entering the small space. “For some hours past it had been with the greatest difficulty I could breathe at all, and now each attempt at so doing was attended with the most distressing spasmodic action of the chest” (Poe 31). Poe creates suspense as Pym struggles to stay alive, waiting for