“The shark was right behind him, its huge jaws wide open, its white dagger teeth gleaming in its bloodred mouth.”

The first chapter begins in medias res, when Chet comes face to face with the shark for the first time. Setting the scene for events to come, this is an evocative sentence that illustrates the enormity of the shark and the threat it poses to human life. By comparing the shark’s teeth to daggers in a “bloodred mouth,” Tarshis emphasizes the shark’s lethal nature and enhances the narrative’s suspense.

“[A] shark simply will not attack a human. That cherry pie over there is more likely to attack you than a shark is.”

In the wake of learning about the first shark attack, Uncle Jerry tries to calm down Chet and his friends by telling them that sharks do not pose a threat to human life. In this passage, Tarshis illustrates the widely held misconceptions in the past due to a lack of knowledge about sharks.

“‘Killer eyes.’ The Captain was looking out the window now, like he expected to see that shark with its open jaws pressed against the glass. ‘Killer eyes,’ he repeated quietly.”

“Killer eyes” is a phrase repeated throughout the text, both by Captain Wilson and Chet as he comes face to face with the shark. Captain Wilson says this at the end of his shark attack survival story. Despite surviving his encounter with the shark, Captain Wilson still carries trauma from the event. Looking at Captain Wilson, Chet feels that the old man is reliving the experience, as if he can still see the shark’s enormous form in front of him.