Have you ever come across a story you simply can’t put down or a story that bores you to sleep? There is a reason some stories keep you interested, while some do not. The story “Hit and Run” by John D. MacDonald is about a detective, Walter Post. Post solved the case of a mysterious hit and run car accident that occurred on Harding Avenue. After searching for a while, he found a suspect. He later discovered the real criminal was the mechanic that was fixing the car for the suspected family. MacDonald uses the literary techniques of flashback, suspense, and an ironic surprise ending to maintain reader interest.
The first technique that MacDonald used was flashback. Jon MacDonald cues the flashback by stating, “The killing had occurred on a rainy Tuesday morning in September at 9:30, in the 1200 block of Harding Avenue”. This quote is just one of the few flashback examples used in this story. Throughout the story, the narrator uses the flashback technique to describe what, where, and when the accident happened. These flashbacks set up the structure of the story. They can also hint what will happen throughout the writing. These flashbacks give specific details of conditions prior to the event too. In this story, details include the date of the accident, information on Harding Avenue, and prior complaints of Harding Avenue being dangerous. …show more content…
To build suspense, MacDonald stated, “And he knew there would be no joy in solving the case because he would find at the end of his search not some monster, some symbol of evil, but merely another victim, a trembling human animal”. MacDonald made you wonder what kind of person the criminal would be. He used this example to show that at the end of the story, there will be a person just as scared as the victim. A victim that had got in an accident and ran away in fear. This is a great example of suspense because it does not give the ending away, but hints how it the short story may