Question

I could see that my neighbor was struggling with the lone bag of groceries cradled in her arms, but I wasn’t sure what I should do. Grandma June—what all the neighborhood kids had called her for as long as I could remember—had always been the one to care for us, to help us build stronger forts, to grow better flowers, and to learn from our mistakes. To ask if she needed help with something as simple as carrying in one bag of groceries would be like shouting to the world that she was aging, that she was no longer as strong as she once had been. Hesitantly, I walked to the wooden gate that divided our front lawn from hers and stood there as the package she was carrying threatened to spill from her arms. Lucy decides that this may not be the most effective way to tell her story. If she wants to create more suspense in the plot, what would be the best possible change she could make?

Answer 1

She could start with the last sentence instead, allowing suspense to build as the reader wonders why she is hesitant to ask if Grandma June needs help.

Step-by-step explanation:

Suspense in a literary work is one that keeps the anxious expectation about a resolution or the state of tension in a given situation. In the context of art (literature, theater and cinema), it is a resource that aims at the impatient expectation of the viewer or the reader for the development of an action. In the case of the excerpt shown in the question, Lucy could rewrite her chapter in order to put more suspense in the plot.

To do so, she could start the paragraph with the sentence at the end of the paragraph. That is, the paragraph begins with the phrase "I could see that my neighbor was struggling with the lone bag of groceries cradled in her arms, but I was not sure what I should do.", To generate suspense and make the reader curious about what is happening in the story, the paragraph should begin "the package she was carrying threatened to spill from her arms."