The Hitch-Hiker Language Analysis

Good morning Sydney Writers Festival and fellow peers, today I am here to talk about the power of the short story, I will be focusing my ideas based off ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ by Francis Greig which falls under the category of the spooky story. The Hitch Hiker fascinates the audience because it uses a variety of language techniques that engages the reader to understand the character’s situation, in this case, Carole.

Sentence structure in ‘The Hitch-Hiker’ is a crucial element as it creates a vast majority of the suspense and tension in the short story which is what engages the reader to a spooky story. Within sentence structure, this includes the use of dashes that then creates dramatic pauses and engages the reader with the writer. An example like, “Out there in the blackness, predators were closing in on their prey- ruthlessly, silently.” Sentence structure allows the reader to process what might be happening and allows the reader to assume what might happen next to the character which lets the writer engage the audience to the spooky story.
Although foreshadowing may not be a crucial element like sentence structure, foreshadowing does engage the reader. When Carole is on the train thinking about the animals being caught by their predator it foreshadows to what might have happened to her if she hadn’t of ran away. Foreshadowing engages the reader because it enables the audience to take hints to what might happen in the story making us feel anxious for the character in the situation they are