Okay, so this book is turning out to be pretty (very) good! I'm starting to enjoy this, although sometimes I don't have a fleck of understanding at what it means. So because I probably won’t read this thing again (hard words give me headaches… maybe in college, when we have more time) I’m going to try to remember this thing to not have to read this again.
I’m back to writing quotes, and this time I’m going to try to find quotes about the father-son relationship. I don’t this this is a (what we would think of as a) normal relationship. But even though the environment is practically as harsh as it could get, I sometimes can’t keep from feeling wonder about the beautiful relationship between them.
‘He hoped the boy had gone back to sleep. He knelt there wheezing softly, his hand son his knees. I am going to die, he said. Tell me how I am to do that.’ (p.175)
The man is afraid to die, because then the boy would be left alone in this desolate world without anyone to depend on. I am thinking that behind the ‘Tell me how I am to do that’ is a phrase that says: (without leaving the child so lonely in this world) .
The man cares too much about the boy to leave him alone in this world and just peacefully drift away.
‘What is it?
Nothing. I had a bad dream.
What did you dream about?
Nothing.
Are you okay?
No.
He put his arms around him and held him. It’s okay, he said.
I was crying. But you didn’t wake up.
I’m sorry. I was just so tired.
I meant in the dream.’ (p.183)
By this I think the boy know, too, that his father is very sick. I think ‘crying’ in this quotes means ‘crying for help’ and ‘didn’t wake up’ means, of course, death.
The boy cares about his father, and is afraid that he will die someday, leaving him alone.
It is getting very serous in this book (which I thought was impossible but now I see it isn’t)
‘Is that true?
Yes. That’s true.
But it might not be true.
I think it’s true.
Okay.
You don’t believe me.
I believe you.
Okay.
I always believe you.
I don’t think so.
Yes I do. I have to.’ (p.185)
I believe that the boy trusts the man, trusts him in what he says. The man is the boy’s only partner, only family and if the boy doesn’t trust him who will he trust and who will trust him? The boy has to believe in his father, and that is a fact.
There's something I noticed about the way the author uses words. No apostrophes! When the author uses words like ‘doesn’t’, he doesn’t use an apostrophe between the letters. He uses it like, ‘doesnt’. I know this is completely grammatically wrong, so why is the author doing this? Does this mean something? Does the author want us to catch up on something by this? I’m really curious.
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Wow~ I like how you worded these things ^^ Before reading this I never thought that the boy actually knew the man was sick. From reading the quotes you chose, I had this thought that maybe the boy could have heard it while he was sleeping. I also don't get why the author chose to not use apostrophes. But I kind of don't agree with you in the part where the boy believe in everything the boy says..... I mean the man is the only person the boy can trust. But, I thought that the boy can't agree with everything the man says. I think he's just pretending that he agrees and the man is acting as if he understands.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I learn a lot from what you have shared! Great Job! I really like reading what you write! ^^
I think you just chose the most important exerpts from the book.
ReplyDeleteThere were some similar analysis with me. I, too, thought that the child's dream scene foreshadows the death of father, or at least, the seperation of the boy and the man. And it is true that the boy is struggling more and more as they keep going on the road. Not a kind of real fight but the boy's not believing the boy.
I like that you focused on the relationship between the boy and the man for this section. I think you're right that the imminent death of the man is changing their relationship and that the dream foreshadows this.
ReplyDeleteYour ideas are very clear and neat:DI could easily understand it. Well actually, your opinion about the third quote ('I have to'part) was totally different from mine, since I thought that the boy's saying that just to end up the boring conversation. Yet, after reading your posting, I became to agree with you:-)
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