Episode Five 227 - 230

How the episode impacted on you. What was the writer doing to evoke this response?

It is slow and drawn out, long, monotonous sentences drag out time in the narrative but at the same time chronologically the time passes quickly. It just skips ahead days at a time after a long description. The use of the simplistic connective “and” shows how weary they are, they are just listing everything they’ve done. The world and the journey is draining everything away, it just becomes endless. One thing leading in to another, but never changing.

Plot progression (what will happen next?)

I am unsure as to what will happen next, the whole of the book the man has been talking about how he’s heading for the coast. Now they’ve arrived it’s a disappointment and the little hope the man has will so fade. I don’t know whether they’ll move on or just stay by the coast.

Your experience (change of mood? A lighter moment? Increase or release of tension?)

This particular episode isn’t very tense is all quite dull, it shows the endlessness of the world and how the only things left to do is just carry on with their menial tasks.

How does this develop character and their relationships?

Time passes very quickly and lot of days pass and you see how the man and the boy are with each other. The man looks out for the boy first and foremost, and the boy tries to help wherever he can.

Is the language in keeping with rest of novel? Are there particular symbols or images that are foregrounded?

There is a part where he described the coast as “Cold. Desolate. Birdless.” This is very similar to the way that he describes the world at the very beginning of the book; he describes it as “Barren, silent, godless.” This shows that despite this is the place they’ve been heading towards for the whole of the book, it is just like the rest of the world. There is no hope here, no more than there is anywhere else. Death has reached here too.

Is this in fact a key episode? What makes it important? How does it stand out in a novel without chapters?

This shows how much the desolation is growing in their lives and how much hope is dying. This journey was the one thing giving them hope in the man’s case. It was the one place he wanted to reach. It emphasise the hopelessness in the world, no light can shine and everything is going to die and end. Even the little hope they had has withered and died, draining them in the process. It is evident they are without hope now as the man said he could “see the disappointment in his face” they’ve come all this way for nothing.