A Wrinkle In Time

Suspense

Suspense is an important part of the story.  When the author creates suspense , the story is more interesting.  The reader wants to keep reading to find out what will happen next.  There are many suspenseful passages in A Wrinkle In Time. One of the passages where the author creates the most suspense is when the children first arrive on Camazotz, and realize that they must visit CENTRAL Central Intelligence.  Read the excerpt below as you think about how the story creates suspense.

The three of them stood very quietly. The doors kept opening and shutting, opening and shutting, and the stiff people hurried in and out, in and out, walking jerkily like figures in an old silent movie.  Then, abruptly, the stream of movement thinned.  There were only a few people and these moved rapidly, as if the film had been speeded up. One white-faced man in a dark suit looked directly at the children, said, "Oh,dear, I shall be late," and flickered into the building.

"He's like a white rabbit," Meg giggled nervously.

"I'm scared," Charles Wallace said. "I can't reach them at all. I'm completely shut out."

"We have to find father--" Meg started again.

"Meg--" Charles Wallace's eyes were wide and frightened. "I'm not even sure I'll even know Father. It's been so long, and I was only a baby--"

Meg's reassurance came quickly. "You'll know him!" Of course you'll know him! The way you;d know me even without looking because I'm always there for you, you can always reach in--"

"Yes." Charles Wallace punched one small fist into an open palm with a gesture of great decision. "Let's go to CENTRAL Central Intelligence."

Calvin reached out and caught both Charles and Meg by the arm. "You remember when we met, and you asked me why I was there? And I told you that it was because I had a compulsion, a feeling I just had to come to that particular place at that particular moment?"

"Yes, sure."

"I've got another feeling. Not the same kind, a different one, a feeling that if we go into that building we're going into terrible danger."

(Chapter 6, pages 112-113)