Touching the Void

659 Words3 Pages
Simon is Joe’s best friend and they have both gone out mountaineering. When Joe has the accident, Simon feels powerful emotions but reaches calm and logical conclusions. At the start of the passage, Simon is disconcerted as he cannot see Joe anymore. The writer here uses dramatic irony, as we already know the severe accident Joe has had. Furthermore, the use of positive statements such as ‘grateful’ and ‘glad’ reinforce the ignorance of Simon and create sympathy as we know it will get worse. Moreover, there is a sudden change in mood. Violence is shown in the words ‘suddenly’, ‘sharp’ and ‘jerk’. Simon is confused as he now hints something bad has happened to Joe. At the same time he is calm and considered, as he ‘stays put’. This shows Simon thinks about things carefully before actually doing the, and doesn’t want to hurry before he knows exactly what has happened. It also shows the different situations and the different perspectives on the same events. In addition, the writer uses short and powerful sentences, which transmit a complete and clear message. This is seen in the words ‘Nothing happened.’ They also reflect the pause of the action and add to the idea of Simon meditating to think what to do next. Simon is also very calm and predicts what is going to happen when he uses modal verbs. This is seen in the words ‘I could see it’ and ‘I might also die’. This conveys Simon is calm and has a factual tone. The use of these verbs show Simon has thought about what will happen carefully and is speculating the future. This makes us see he is logical and wants things to go well. We can also tell Simon is hard-hearted and has powerful emotions when he says ‘he looked pathetic’. Simon uses unsympathetic language, which suggests he doesn’t care about what has happened to Joe and doesn’t want to help him. He describes Joe as ‘with his face buried in the snow’. There is
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