This is a great question as Harper Lee actually uses a
false climax in this Chapter to lull us into a false sense of security before the real
danger reveals itself. This chapter then deals with the events before, during and after
the pageant. Note how from the start the darkness is emphasised through the absence of
any moonlight and the "sharp shadows" that are cast on the Radley house by the
streetlight. Also, reference to their previous childish beliefs in scary stories is
referred to, even though it is said that their belief in such things was now
past:
Haints, Hot Steams, incantations, secret signs, had
vanished with our years as mist with sunrise.
However, when
they start walking across the school yard in the pitch black, Cecil Jacobs leaps on them
to try and scare them. This is the false climax that Lee uses to give a deceptive sense
of calm. It is when Jem and Scout walk back home after the pageant however, that
suspense is built. Jem thinks he hears something in the darkness, and this is something
that makes both Scout and Jem afraid:
"Thought I heard something," he said. "Stop a
minute."
We stopped.
"Hear
anything?" he asked.
"No."
We
had not gone five paces before he made me stop again.
"Jem,
are you tryin' to scare me? You know I'm too old-"
"Be
quiet," he said, and I knew he was not
joking.
References to "the
stillness before a thunderstorm" and the stopping and starting serves to create great
suspense as we, like Jem and Scout, wonder who is out there and why. As they keep on
moving and they are sure that "shuffle-foot" is following them and they can hear him
draw close, suspense is raised to fever-pitch, until this figure
attacks.
Therefore suspense is raised through the false
climax used by Lee, and then by the darkness of the setting, the isolation of Jem and
Scout and the sounds of the figure that is approaching them.
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