"Trucks"

"You could hear it a mile down the road.  It whipped out around a VW Beetle and just snapped it off the road with the whiplash of the trailer, the way you'd snap a ball of paper off the table with your finger."

I believe the first sentence sets the tone for the rest of the passage; it is short, blunt, and gets down to the point.  I believe writing it this way brings more excitement to the rising action and sets the stage for the climax.  "You could hear it a mile down the road" makes the reader start asking questions.  Hear what a mile down the road?  Why is it so loud?  What is it doing, or what is it going to do?  All of these question came to my mind when reading this excerpt out of the Stephen King novel "Night Shift," and made me want to read more to find out the answer.  If the statement read "You could hear the truck a mile down the road bearing down on a VW Beetle" it would take away all of the anticipation of what would be coming next.  Yes, there still would be some different questions to ask, but the mood and tone of the story would be extremely different.

"The way you'd snap a ball of paper off the table with your finger" brings such a vivid image to my mind I know exactly how the Beetle was hit.  This shows how good writing can bring a short video within the reader, and can make him/her relate it to real life situations.  The sentence made the Beetle be some lifeless object that did not have any power.  There are many different ways this sentence could be observed; a sixth grade bully stealing money from a third grader, the high school jock giving a swirly to the nerd, or even a boss using his/her authority to get something finished.  With all of these real life situation the reader can relate to the story.   They all go back to one main theme: power, dominance, authority, etc, etc.

I believe the author's main goal in these two sentences is to make the reader think and be anxious while reading, wanting to know more.  If an author makes me get butterflies in my stomach then they have done their job.  Whenever I become really into a story I get angry at myself that I can't read fast enough and butterflies appear in my stomach.  I hope this blog will encourage everyone to read "Trucks" taken from "Night Shift" a story written by Stephen King. 

"You could see it coming through the magnificent glowing horizon.  It sped up at a blistering speed dodging in and out.  It positioned its weapon how an Indian would pull his bow, and at the precise time lunged and stung its target with a deadly blow, exactly how the Indian would shoot the prey.