This sample “A” discussion post responds to a question about Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House, which was read in the previous class. The prompt and answer are below, along with my annotations in red.

Prompt: how does Jackson use literary devices such as setting, narration, conflict and climax to build her story? Choose just one or two devices that you think are important, and talk about how they add to the story. Make sure to bring up specific passages as evidence.

· Response to Question Two:

Like with Lovecraft’s works(the writer connects to a previous work, which I’ll hope you can do as the quarter proceeds), the setting and narrators(the opening sentence quickly identifies which terms this post will deal with) play a major part in adding to the story. For example, in “The Shadow over Innsmouth” the first-person narration, as well as the setting, limit the scope of knowledge the reader is given, which adds to the terror the reader is felt. In Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of House Hill, like “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” setting and narration play an important role but done in drastically different ways; nonetheless they still lead to a heighten sense of terror.(great last sentence that addresses the prompt specifically, not only in which terms the writer will deal with, but how they specifically add to the story)

Setting places a major role in two ways; one the construction of the house has a distorting effect on the protagonists, and two the time of the day foreshadows the coming of evil events. Within the first day that the group had been living at Hill House, they note that the way the house was built is adding to their sense of distortion (the writer presents one main idea about the setting). As Dr. Montague explains that the house was created so, “every angle is slightly wrong…the result of all these tiny aberrations of measurements adds up to a fairly large distortion in the house as a whole” (chap 4an in-text citation citing the chapter is given).(the writer presents a specific quote that illustrates the main idea; then the writer goes on to analyze that quote) This gives, what they describe as, a fun house effect; in other words the feelings that they are all through an evil maze. More than the stagnant setting, the time of day also adds to the sense of horror felt by the characters.(the writer follows this same pattern with her second point about the setting: main idea, then quote, than some analysis) Somewhat set up by Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, the idea that the house comes alive in the dark is furthered by statements such as, “I leave before dark comes” (chap 2). As the night signals to the reader that evil is coming, it adds a sense of horror because the reader is always anticipating what comes next. Day and night are inevitable, and in this way so is the terror that haunted the protagonists.By the end of the paragraph, the writer has returned to her larger point about how setting adds to the sense of terror.

Additionally, the narration appears to be done in third-person(the writer clearly shifts to her second literary term), however the attention given Eleanor suggests that it could have been a function of her thoughts (past or present).The writer presents her main idea about the complex narrative style. The first clear evidence of this is how much the reader knows about Eleanor compared to the rest of the group. Jackson explain the scenario in detail that faces Eleanor when she attempts to leave her sister and go to Hill House, whereas the audience is only told minor details of Theodora and Luke (chap 3). Moreover, when Theodora and Eleanor are having their picnic by the shed, the reader is never told what Theodora saw that made her scream, “Don’t look back—don’t look—run!” (chap 7). Possibly because Eleanor did not see it, instead she took off running in the opposite direction and never looked back. The final evidence that the story is told from Eleanor’s perspective is how the group seemingly ganged up on her. For example, after the writing was found on the wall all three of them mock her saying things like “Stop trying to be the center of attention,” or “[Eleanor always] has to be in the limelight” (chap 6). These cruel words to do not seem in line with the characters, instead it seems more like a projection of Eleanor’s paranoia and depression.(The writer has provided three different examples here to illustrate the unusual narrative style. Then the writer goes on to explain how the narrative style adds to the sense of fear.) This unusual style of narration does two things to heighten the fear created in the reader’s mind. First, it makes the reader feel like the main protagonist is being stalked and in a way hunted by the evil, in a way that makes the reader feel like they should reach out and tell that character to “get out of the house!” The second way that it creates more terror for the reader, is it leaves us thinking about the sanity of Eleanor (and by extension the narrator) and who was really at fault for the hauntings.

This response is very strong for multiple reasons:

1) It provides a very clear, direct response to the prompt, and quickly provides a focus, which in this case is the choosing of two specific literary terms;

2) The response provides direct quotations as evidence that are introduced clearly and then analyzed to show how they illustrate the writer’s point

3) The response has something unique and interesting to say about how the literary devices “add to the story,” that they “heighten the fear” of the story. By doing this, the response provides an insightful, original overall interpretation that unifies the entire post. While not all of your posts have to do this (sometimes different paragraphs might talk about different things, and that can be okay), this response is exceptional in its ability to unify its evidence and ideas.