Analysis of "I Spy" by Graham Greene
             The narrator uses foreshadowing, but he/she doesn't tell us exactly what will occur later in the story. Instead, he uses hints to suggest the coming events and how the mood will be. "Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. [...] Charlie Stowe was frightened." (p. 534). By describing Charlie's waiting and fears the narrator builds suspense, which makes us want to go on and find out more about the event that is being foreshadowed. Charlie's emotions and actions are described by the past tense. This makes the reader aware that the narrator knows what will happen later in the story, and at the same time it stimulates curiosity.
             In my opinion, the exposition in "I spy" is rather vague, because the story starts in medias res. From the beginning, we are not told anything about the characters or the setting; we are thrust straight into the action. In the course of events the reader learns more and more about Charlie. The narrator tells that Charlie is twelve years old, and describes that he can hear the sea (p.534). The father was also supposed to be in Norwich (p. 535), so I think the setting is somewhere in East Anglia. But these facts come gradually so any real exposition is not to be found.
             I believe the action takes place during the First World War, because the narrator makes use of words and objects that belongs in that period, e.g. "A search-light passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships." (p.534), and later when Charlie describes his mother: "except the 'Huns', the monsters who lurked in Zeppelins in the clouds" (pp. 534-335). These two quotations show clearly that there are some good guys and some bad guys. In the latter quotation Charlie mentions the word "Huns", which is a derogatory name for ...