13th March 2018

Disaster-Chapter 5 (Climax)

  1. When Joe shatters his knee joint, it is one of the most climactic moments in the text. Joe uses extremely descriptive language to explain how it felt to experience this and to draw the reader into the moment, an example of this is “My knee exploded, Bone grated and the fireball rushed from groin to knee.” this hyperbole and metaphor tells us exactly how he feels and what he is going through his head at that moment. Joe uses the comment “Something terrible something dark with dread occurred to me, and as I thought about it I felt the dark thought break into panic: I’ve broken my leg, that’s it I’m dead!'” to make us understand how extreme this disaster is and that death is the likely outcome. Joe also often refers to the pain as a fire: “the fireball rushed”,”a fierce burning ball”,”Stabs of fire”,”Pouring on fire” he uses this repetition to portray the idea of how the pain feels and to personify the pain and make it seem as if the fire is torturing him. Joe might also use the idea of fire to portray the pain as it contrasts the snow and ice of the mountains.

  2. When joe shattered his knee in the text he uses simons opinion to tell a different perspective of the disaster and explain how it felt for Simon as well as joe because in the situation Simon tells us that “he could get down the mountain by himself” but would have to leave joe, or he could risk both of them dying but he might be able to get both of them down the mountain. but Simon decided to try get Joe down and “It never occurred to me that I might also die, I accepted it without question.
    The use of Simons perspective also tells us how Simon plans to get them down the East Face safely and what he has to do to lower joe. at this moment Joe is only really thinking about his leg and the pain, so it is good to get a different perspective of the event.
    Joe interviewed Simon about his experiences in sections of their journey on Siula Grande and recounted what he believed to be Simon’s perspective of these experiences, Simon said that these recounts were accurate to his thoughts and feelings. this tells us that in the text all of Simons perspectives where not actually his own but an opinion of Joes, to what Simons perspective was at the time of the event. “Simon said that these recounts were accurate to his thoughts and feelings” this shows that Simon believes that what Joe has written is accurate to the truth but it still cannot be simons perspective because it was written by Joe

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. Aden, you have included perceptive comments about the effect of the language techniques used in this section of the text – well done! Consider how “Simon’s narration” would have been affected by Joe’s retelling of Simon’s thoughts and feelings. I.e. You state: “were not actually his own but an opinion of Joe’s, to what Simons perspective was at the time of the event.” How did this fact affect the information we get from this additional narration?

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