The Setting - Mood

The mood that is created in my book is suspense and frustration. The way that suspense is created in my book is when John, my protagonist, teams up with John Brown, a former slave, whom lives next to his farm. They and a current slave at James' farm, Sojourner Truth, come together to help the rest of the slaves escape from his family's farm. The suspense aspect of this situation is that when James is going outside to meet the slaves, John, and Sojourner before the escape when his father almost catches him. He walks downstairs and his father is reading by the candlelight. HIs father asks where he is going and he makes up an excuse. His father was very suspicious but James gets himself out of it. The other aspect of suspense in this part is that he is, in a way, insulting his family and the powerful Caucasian people of his area by releasing his families slaves. This is also embarrassing for his father because his own son went against him to release his own families slaves, a very bold move on James part. The frustration aspect of this story is built on the way that John feels at first and he how he feels later in the story. James' farm and John's property are separated by a fence that was created because two sections of Virginia disagreed over the abolition of slavery. While James and John become better friends, John explains to James how frustrated he feels about slavery and how horrible a slave's life is. James was sometimes sympathetic of the slaves because they were treated unfairly. Although he hadn't thought much about it. As James soaks in John's anger and frustration, James feels his pain and feels guilty he has slaves doing his family's work. He also feels frustrated whether he should stick to his families values or whether he should do what he thinks is right. As the story goes along James frustration and guilt becomes so intense that he needs to do something drastic to end it.