In your journals, consider the following:
How does Benchley build suspense?
Which passages best build the suspense in this particular excerpt?
Are there any similar techniques employed by Benchley and Poe?
If so, which ones do the writers favor most heavily?
Jaws
The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. The mouth was open just enough to permit a rush of water over the gills. There was little other motion: an occasional correction of the apparently aimless course by the slight raising or lowering of a pectoral fin – as a bird changes direction by dipping one wing and lifting the other. The eyes were sightless in the black, and the other senses transmitted nothing extraordinary to the small, primitive brain. The fish might have been asleep, save for the movement dictated by countless millions of years of instinctive continuity: lacking the flotation bladder common to other fish and the fluttering flaps to push oxygen-bearing water through its gills, it survived only by moving. Once stopped, it would sink to the bottom and die of anoxia.
The land seemed almost as dark as the water, for there was no moon. All that separated sea from shore was a long, straight stretch of beach – so white that it shone. From a house behind the grass-splotched dunes, lights cast yellow glimmers on the sand.
The front door to the house opened, and a man and a woman stepped out on to the wooden porch. They stood for a moment staring at the sea, embraced quickly, and scampered down the few steps on to the sand. The man was drunk, and he stumbled on the bottom step. The woman laughed and took his hand, and together they ran to the beach.
‘First a swim,’ said the woman, ‘to clear your head.’
‘Forget my head,’ said the man. Giggling, he fell backward on to the sand, pulling the woman down with him. They fumbled with each other’s clothing, twined limbs around limbs, and thrashed with urgent ardour on the cold sand. Afterward, the man lay back and closed his eyes. The woman looked at him and smiled. ‘Now, how about that swim?’ she said.
‘You go ahead. I’ll wait for you here.’
