Quotation Analysis

This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job.

The use short sentences in this quotation reflect the harsh reality of what the man is having to do to care for his son.  The last sentence makes it sound as though it is the man's duty to do these horrific tasks, and the word 'job' shows these horrific things happen often.  This quotation is bleak and unemotional as sounds as though the man does not care for his child a great deal, but, due to their situation in life we can tell that the man is trying not to love his child too much as if he distances himself from him it will be less painful if anything happened to his son, which is not unlikely due the conditions presented in the novel.  However, this could also be viewed as the man calling his son a burden because the word 'job' shows that he has to do it.

Yes I am, he said. I am the one

In this quote the man is speaking to his son and assuring him that he is the one who can look after and protect the boy.  The simple, short sentences show how factual the man is being and the lack of detail shows that the man is protecting the boy from the horrific details of the world around him.  The use of the word ‘one’ suggests the absolute isolation of the man and boy in the world and the fact that no-one else will protect the boy if the man does not.  This gives us an idea of the type of relationship the man and boy have; they only have each other and therefore they have to protect one another as there isn’t anyone else to care for or be cared for by.

Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef.

The use of list form in this quotation makes the narrative seem desperate and the way only the names of the food are mentioned and not any descriptions of each food shows utter need for this food and the fact that there is no time to describe things as the characters are so hungry.  The alliteration of the ‘C’ in ‘Canned’ and ‘Corned’ creates a rhythm so that the pace increases to show a build up of happiness and disbelief in sighing sound as though the characters are so happy and in disbelief of what they are seeing and that they can’t believe their luck in finding such supplies and are sighing in relief because they were in such desperate need of food.  The desperation for food highlighted in this quote makes the reader realise how much the world in which the novel is set differs to the one we live in.

Are we still the good guys, he said.

This quote questions the personalities of the characters in the novel as it asks whether they are still good or not.  This questioning of character shows how unsure the characters are all the time of whether they are doing the right thing or not.  The boy is asking the man this question and in doing so shows that he still has morals in a world where many people have none, which is ironic as the older people who have little or no morals are old enough to remember a world similar to the one in which we live, yet a boy, who only knows a corrupt and broken world has morals similar to the ones in the world which the older characters used to know.  The boy refers to himself and the man as ‘good guys’ which sounds like a hero and villain comic story.  This shows the man wanting to protect the boy from the terrible truth of what is going on around them by teaching the boy that they are the good guys found in these stories and the other people are bad guys.  Making references to these stories shows that the man is trying to keep the boy unaware of the true horrors of the world by likening them to this type of fictional character in which the stories they come from always have a happy ending.  This also shows that the man is willing himself to have hope for the their future as calling himself a ‘good guy’ makes him seem more immune to danger and more convinced that he and the boy will be ok. This simplistic phrase also reminds the reader that the boy is only young and because of his high morals we sometimes forget this through the novel.  It shows that the man is trying to put the world into terms that the boy can relate to and also, in using the simple terms ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ we question whether the man and boy believe that there can be anyone in between these two states.

We should go, Papa, he said. Yes, the man said. But he didn't.

This quotation shows that there is a strong unease in this scene and that its presence can be felt by both the boy and the man, but at the same time the man wants to find things out, even if the boy is uncomfortable with this.  It shows the conflict of the man’s mind between pleasing his son by leaving to put the boys mind at ease and finding out what dangers he must protect him from.  It also shows the desperation of their situation because the man wants to stay and make sure he hasn’t missed anything that could help them survive, even though both he and the boy feel uneasy about where they are and what they are doing.  The short end sentence builds up tension at this part in the novel as it is factual and ominous, and it also contradicts the sentence before it, so we as the reader want to know what is going on and why the man is doing the exact opposite to what he is saying.


The snow fell nor did it cease to fall.

The lack of punctuation in this sentence shows how constant the snow fall was.  The lack of detail or description of the snow shows how the falling snow it a fact of life, rather than a joyous occasion, as it is often portrayed in our society.  The mixes of past and present tense shows how time is past and present are not important as time markers anymore and time seems to merge and move at different rates.  This particular moment in the novel highlights this fact as snow makes everything look the same and indistinguishable, just as time has become indistinguishable too.  The snow could be a metaphor for the journey which the man and boy go on down the road in the fact that it is never ending and the constantly have to keep on going in order to survive.

Okay? Okay.

This two word exchange between the man and boy shows the hostility of their relationship and how distant they are from each other.  It shows a lack of understanding between the characters and how the boy is almost untrustworthy of the man, and the man doesn’t want to lose the boy by upsetting by pushing the conversation further.  Also I think the minimalistic conversation between the two characters shows how little they have to say to each other, because there is nothing to say due to them only living to survive.  The lack of speech marks and the way that different speakers appear on the same line shows how, like the world around them, rules of literacy are disintegrating.

They sat on the edge of the tub and pulled their shoes on and them he handed the boy the pan and soap and he took the stove and the little bottle of gas and the pistol and wrapped in their blankets and they went back across the yard to the bunker.

This is an extremely long sentence, featuring no punctuation to show how everything in their lives is continuous and there is no time to pause.  I also think that the lack of punctuation shows what they were doing as a kind of procedure with little or no emotion and so there is no need for punctuation as it is not necessary to get the point across and the characters in the book do nothing which is not necessary for their survival.  I think the reference to the pistol shows that even though they are fairly complacent in the bunker they still have to be alert and aware of the dangers they may face at any moment which puts the reader on edge.

Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth.

Describing the earth as silent emphasises how different it is to the world we as readers live in and this creates a tense and eerie atmosphere. Oxymoron is also used in this quote; ‘tolling in the silence’.  This shows how profound the silence is due to the fact that is almost has a sound and atmosphere of its own.  Tolling also makes it sound like a constant.  It is always silent and the way it is described as tolling makes us think that the man and boy are constantly reminded of their desolate surrounding due to this constant silence.  This makes the scene more eerie as we more clearly understand the atmosphere of the world and the denseness of this silence tolling in our minds. Referring to ‘minutes’ makes us realise how the man and boy have to live by the minute as they never know what is about to happen to them or their surrounding.  It also shows how time may feel as though it has been warped and minutes make feel like hours, or may actually be hours due to the fact that there are no deadlines, schedules or even clocks anymore and none of it matters because the whole world has changed.  This emphasises the way the man and the boy live; almost like animals in the way that they eat what they can find and the travel by daylight and sleep when it is dark instead of paying attention to time like we do.

She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift. 

This quotation is referring to the way in which the man’s wife left one day to kill herself.  Describing her as gone indicates finality and that the man and boy both accept that she will never return to their lives.  The ‘coldness’ describes the way in which she left as detached an unemotional and calling this coldness a ‘gift’ shows that the man is grateful that she wasn’t emotional and upset as it would have made it harder for him and the boy to carry on without her.  This lack of emotions from both the man and his wife as she goes to die links to the theme of detachment running all the way through the novel as the man is scared to become too attached to his son in fear of the pain if he lost him being too much to cope with.