This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job.
The man sounds in this quote as though he has simply resigned himself to the fact that nothing is going to get any better; when people say the word ‘job’ it is associated with hard work and a lack of interest, something that people distance themselves from and forget when they go home to enjoy family life. The opposite of this is when people talk about their family, when the man says ‘my child’ the reader imagines a happy father and son which is why when the two are put in the same sentence the reader wonders why the father associates work with his son. It could be that he feels like he needs to keep a professional type of relationship between them as there is no guarantee that either will make it through the next day and if he dies, it will hurt his son less if he feels no connection to his father. By referring to it as a job, it makes the man feel like he has a reason to keep going; at the end of a day’s work, people are rewarded with money which gives them something to work towards, for the man, he is working towards a time when his son can go to sleep like any other child and he can pretend for a few hours that their life is normal. He appears to have become immune to the fact that he has to undergo some horrific tasks in order to accomplish this and if washing brains out of his boy’s hair is necessary to watch him sleep peacefully at night, he’ll do it in order to keep his spirits up. He could also refer to the task of looking after the boy as a ‘job’ because he doesn’t really want to do it. He can’t bear the thought of killing his son, yet he knows that if he didn’t have a child, he could quite happily kill himself and end his suffering.
In being ‘the one’ the man is saying that there is no one else who can do his job; in an emotional sense, he is the child’s father and no one else should do his job but in a literal sense, there is no one else. They are dying, so is everybody else on the planet, if he isn’t the one then who is and where are they? He seems to be talking to God in a way, as if some higher power has selected him for the job. The man seems to question God’s judgement, the reader can imagine him looking up towards the sky and sarcastically saying ‘Yes, I am the one’ as if to say, why me? Of all people, why did God find it necessary to choose him to take on such a demanding job in such a hard time, why couldn’t he have just died and let someone else take on the role? He comes across as being reluctant to take on the role but knows that for his son’s sake he must do so, he is the chosen one whether he likes it or not.
At first, this quote sounds like it has spoken very quickly in total astonishment as to what they have come across, all these natural, beautiful fruits that can give them life and restore some of their spirit all laid out before them....in grey metal tins. The tins seem to represent the apocalyptic world, they are dull and grey and trap people from finding the goodness inside of themselves. Ironically when they do fine the goodness, it will do no more than prolong their suffering; the boy can’t get too attached to his father as if he does, when his father dies he will suffer for longer and because of this, he can’t access the fantastic relationship they could have enjoyed together. This is mirrored by the tins of food; although their contents will, in the short term, prevent their suffering, in the long term it will lengthen it. They were both so close to starvation, all they would have had to endure was a few more days and they’d be free, yet now they have found this fruit, they are just going to end up back where they started and the dull tin can acts as a reminder that what is inside, although looks sweet, is actually poison.
Are we still the good guys, he said.
The boy shows his innocence in this part of the book; he can see the effects that the world is having on his father and seems worried that his father is starting to become corrupted. By asking the man this he is questioning what they have done but is also desperately trying to confirm that his father is still a good man and not changing as he needs to know and be reassured that he is alive for a reason and that he must live to preserve the good guys. He could also be saying this to remind his father of the fact that there is a purpose for them to be alive and that he needs him to realise what it is as if he doesn’t, what is the point in them being alive, if they’re not the good guys then they are helping to corrupt an already dying world so there is little point in them living and the realisation of this for the child could prove to be too much for the young child to take on board.
We should go, Papa, he said. Yes, the man said. But he didn't.
In this part of the book, the reader see’s the man lose all enthusiasm for everything, including his son. The two characters effectively swap roles; the boy tries to have some authority over his father, while the man does the opposite of what he knows is best for he and his son, like a typical child would do for no other reason than to be stubborn. The reader worried about the man, he seems to welcome danger in some ways; he knows he ‘should go’ as the boy says, but his state of depression leads him to not care, he’s so miserable within himself that he can’t see the point in doing anything and questions, is there any point in trying to live? We all die some day and most events in life are miserable; although his son represents the creation of a new life, he also represents an eventual death and in this mindset, the man just can’t see the point in doing anything. Although this scene centres on the man’s misery, it also shows the spirit of the boy. He knows nothing other than this miserable world he has been brought into and because of this, doesn’t realise what he has missed out on so has nothing to look back on meaning that all he can do is look forward. This is why he wants to keep going down the road as for him, there could be a better situation but the man knows that nothing he finds will compare to his past so there is no point trying to move forward but at the same time he can’t go back to the past so he is stuck in limbo; although he is still in death’s waiting room, he is in hell and any form of death will seem like heaven so he’s stuck between the two.
The snow fell nor did it cease to fall.
The snow falling represents how everything positive in the old world can very easily be given a negative twist in the new version. When the man was a child, a snowfall meant a day off school and a chance to play, now when the snowfalls for the boy, it’s likely to kill him. Not only this but the snow used to be a fun element to winter that was so special as it only happened for a short time each year where as now, it is persistent, there is no let up and the fun has been ruined. This part of the book also represents the mundane lives they lead, the snow fell and they kept walking, the snow continued to fall and they still kept walking, they see no joy in its beauty or fun in its existence as they know that it will continue to fall regardless of their emotions and they have learnt from experience that the more they get attached to something, the harder it will be when it disappears which it inevitably will, not because its snow and it will melt but because it’s something that they could be happy about so naturally it will be taken away from them.
Okay? Okay.
In this dialogue between the man and the boy there is a clear lack of emotion. It seems like this is down to how scared the boy is of upsetting his father. He must be aware that without the man, he stands no chance of surviving and he seems quite resigned to the fact that his father is depressed so aiming for a conversation is ultimately pointless and is more likely to upset either one or both of them. It also conveys the feeling that they are more like two strangers than a family; neither are connected to the other yet they rely so heavily on each other to keep themselves as happy as is possible under the circumstances.
They sat on the edge of the tub and pulled their shoes on and then 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.
In this sentence, there is no description whatsoever; it shows the reader that their lives consist of nothing put routine and even at a time when they do something remotely different to normal, they still do it in a habitual way; they both seem to know what has to be done and they both get on with it without any fuss, excitement or remote enjoyment. It also shows that there is no connection between the two characters as once again, neither spoke to the other. The sentence gives the impression that the two of them are in a normal setting; they are having a bath and then walking across their yard, the only thing that changes this perception is the pistol which sends the reader back to reality and shows that they’re not enjoying a happy moment, they are still in the same, miserable situation.
Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth.
They appear to be sat in silence at this part in the book with nothing to do but watch the world go by. The earth, as we know it, is always noisy and there are very few places where absolute silence occurs, yet in the apocalyptic state, silence is just an average part of life. It again, highlights the lack of emotion and connection that the two characters have towards each other as they have a void between them preventing them from having a normal conversation. In some ways this must be nice as they time to think and reflect on their lives but this is possibly a bad thing as it allows the man to keep living in the past and not move on and it also will make the boy feel unloved and not good enough as his father never holds a proper conversation with him, he never smiles and although he loves him, the only time we see this during the book is when something terrible happens and the man gets brought back to reality and sees his son is the future and in order to protect him, he must stop dwelling on the past as the ‘silent minutes of the earth’ are passing by and meaning nothing.
She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift.
When talking about the boy’s mother, the narrator shows a contrasting opinion of her, she left them to fend for themselves which was ‘coldness’ yet at the same time this was her ‘gift’ to them. It shows her to be selfish, for leaving them in the first place and thinking more of herself than of her child. However, a mother’s attachment to her child is very strong and leaving him as well as the man she loved must have been the hardest decision of her life and it could have been considered a gift as, if she had stayed, she would have formed a relationship with her son which no matter how great it was, would have hurt him more when she did eventually die. Also, from the man’s point of view, he would never have known what happened to her which may have been a blessing; if he had watched his wife die a horrible torturous death, he would never have recovered from it and given up completely which would have hurt the boy a lot more as he would have had memories and feelings for her and his father. It would also have been a final gift to the man as she would have been a permanent reminder of the past; not only would have seen the past in his memories, she would have been there to remind him of the person he used to be. Also, in leaving in such a cruel way, it gives the man a reason to hate her, where as if she had died while with the man and she had done everything possible to stay alive, he’d have no reason to do anything but love her which would have totally destroyed him.
Victoria, your responses are best when you focus more directly on McCarthy's craft rather than his characterisation. I particularly enjoyed your response to the tinned goods as you focused on the structure and sound of the words.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider "the snow fell nor did it cease to fall" we see McCarthy mixing his tenses, why would he do this. Likewise the removal of speech marks can also be seen as hugely symbolic, why does he ignore the rules?
In terms of characterisation your responses are always very clear and considered. You clearly understand their motivation and relation to one another. Well done Victoria, keep this standard up and try and develop your analysis with greater emphasis on the authors craft.