The House of Dies Drear

I’m going to write about the form, structure and style of The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. First, Virginia Hamilton chose to use mysterious, historical fiction in The House of Dies Drear. Two of the ingredients she used are: Cliffhangers and metaphor. In chapter 15, Virginia Hamilton used cliffhanger to end the chapter, when they were about to have a quarrel with the Darrows. They warned them not to come close to the house of Dies Drear nor Pluto’s cave, since the Darrows wanted the treasure Pluto kept. Also, in chapter 19, which is also the end of the book, Virginia Hamilton used another cliffhanger, which led us to the next book, The Mystery of Drear House. That way, it will give people the motive to read on to the next book and make the readers eager to read the next book. Metaphor revealed through out the book, such as: The stream in the moat. The covered planks are the drawbridges, Thomas thought. And the house of Dies Drear is the castle. In this case, the house of Dies Drear is being compared to a castle, it gives us a mysterious mood, and the impetus can make the story more interesting than just saying everything straightforward. Virginia Hamilton used the plot structure/plot diagram in her book. Beginning, rising action, climax, falling action and ending. The beginning of the story is when the Smalls moved in, rising action in when they knew about the backgrounds of the house and Pluto. Climax is when they had their revenge on the Darrows. The falling action shall be the sequel of The House of Dies Drear. I find this very interesting because Virginia Hamilton wrote The Mystery of Drear House also, but she started working on it 18 years after the first book was published. The sequel was about what happened after, and explained most parts of the mystery in the first book. She, herself also said that “I began it by looking for an opening, something I hadn’t done in the first book. ‘ What did I miss doing in Dies Drear?’ I asked myself. ‘Is