In “Monkey’s Paw,” the Sergeant Major does
well at building suspense in both his words and actions. The first time suspense is built is when he
quickly says “Nothing” after he is reminded of how he started talking about the
monkey’s paw the other day. Further, the
Sergeant Major seems to stop just short of a full explanation to where readers,
like the family, are curious to know more.
The Sergeant Major, too, uses his whiskey glass to create suspense in
replace of full answers like how he taps the glass against his teeth after
responding to the suspenseful question of whether or not he had three wishes
granted. It is quite characteristic of
the Sergeant Major to respond to other characters with underdeveloped thoughts
then follow those thoughts with some sort of action with the whiskey
glass.
