Unique, Response to the Book, p.100~150

This time, I'd like to have some quotes from the book and comment on those quotes.
Let me begin~



1. p100~101


You think we're going to die, dont you?/I dont know./We're not going to die./Okay.
But you dont believe me./I dont know./Why do yo think we're going to die?/I dont know.
Stop saying I dont know./Okay.
...
Okay./But you don't believe me./I dont know.
...
Do you think I lie to you?/No./But you think I might lie to you about dying./Yes.
Okay. I might. But we're not dying./Okay.


-> One thing to notice before we look at the content: the author does not use an apostrophe if possible. For the word "we're", it has a totally different meaning when te apostrophe is taken out. But for the word "don't", we can still notice the meaning of this word even when it has no apostrophe but be "dont". Because of that, the author used an apostrophe when writing the word "we're" and used none when writing the word "dont".

I guess the author did this to make the text dry. If you put an apostrophe (or if you read it) then there occurs a slight delay in reading, since there is an amount of space apostrophe takes and it appears to be empty, almost. And the apostrophe is located higher than (most of) the other letters and thus distracts you. Therefore, the more apostrophes you omit, the drier and flatter the text becomes.


-> The man keeps saying that the boy doesn't believe him when the boy says anything beside that he doesn't know. He states something, and ask the boy if he doubts it, and even when the boy says he doesn't, he just says that he doesn't believe him. But then he concludes with the statement, "we're not dying."

I think from this text, we can guess that the father is trying to make the boy believe that they're safe, they're going to survive, but he himself is doubting it. He says that the boy doesn't believe him but actually HE is the one who doesn't believe that they might survive. And the last sentence is for himself, trying to show confidence to himself.


-> The man's statesments are denied as the story goes on. On p115, the boy asks if the bad guys find them they'll kill them. And the father says, yes they will. He'd been denying to admit to the boy that they might die so strongly for so long, but now, facing a real danger, he admitts it. It means that the situation became so terrible and dangerous that the man was forced to face it. And he actually has a long time thinking that they are to die before he finds "the paradise".




2. p113~114


If they find you you are going to have to do it. You put [the revolver] in your mouth and point it up. Do it quick and hard. Do you understand? Yes. Yes I do Papa. ... No you don't.

Can you do it? When the time comes? Curse God and die. What if it doesn't fire? Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock?

Hold him in your arms. Just so. The soul is quick. Pull him toward you. Kiss him. Quickly.


-> I think that "Can you do it?" means "Can the father kill the boy when the bad guys approach them?". The man at first tries to hand the revolver to the boy and make him kill himself when the time comes. Putting the gun in your mouth and pointing it up means shooting the gun at yourself, doesn't it? But the boy shows too much horror. So the man asks himself if he can kill shoot the boy or kill him with a stone instead of the boy. Quite a sad scene.


->"Kiss him." Well, the man hadn't kissed the boy before this scene. However, from the time he first gives the boy a kiss, he kisses him a few more times. On p117 he kisses the sleeping boy. On p137 he kisses the boy before he ventures to the bunker. And on p149 he kisses the boy before he goes to sleep. All these kisses show the man's love toward the boy. He now gets to show his love, express his love more. Through a kiss. sometimes because he notices how short time is left for them, sometimes because the peace makes him notice how beautiful and how weak the boy is.



3. p127

They're going to kill those people, arent they?/Yes.
Why do they have to do that?/I dont know.
Are they going to eat them?/ I dont know.
They're going to eat them, arent they?/Yes.
And we couldn help them because then they'd eat us too?/Yes.
And that's why we couldnt help them./Yes./Okay.


-> Another 'helping others' problem. There were a little boy and a dog the boy wanted to rescue and have along, but the man and the boy couldn't help the boy and the dog. At that time the boy qestioned why the couldn't do so. It actually appears again on p131. They visit a village where all the people are dead and the boy says that he wishes that little boy was with them. He didn't let go of the thinking about the boy. He thinks that they boy died and he might have survived if they took him along. 'Helping others' problem first appeared when they met a lightning-striken man. Through all these times, the boy is feeling awful that they can't help people in worse situations.



4. p128~129

We wouldnt ever eat anyboy, would we?/No. Of course not.
Even if we were starving?/We're starving now.
But we wouldnt./No. We wouldnt./No matter what./No. No matter what.
Because we're the good guys./Yes./And we're carrying the fire./And we're carrying the fire. Yes.


-> It's about the boundary between the good guys and the bad guys. Eating people is a certain, easy-to-say criteria of morality in the text. Good guys, the man and the boy do not eat people even when they are starving to death. But bad guys, they keep people in a storage, treat them like food, and eat them.

-> What does "carrying the fire" means? "The fire" has a special meaning? Like the fire of the Olympics? Or does it simply mean that they have fire to rely their life on?

-> The man and the boy being good or bad is an important issue in the text. Not helping the people in danger is a thing that makes the boy question their being good. The belief that they are the good guys is what keeps the boy alive, move on, and cling to the life. The man knows that and he ses it. On p137 he says "This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They dont give up." to encourage the boy to keep holding the lamp.



5. p132

They came upon themselves in a mirror and he almost raised the pistol. It's us, Papa, the boy whispered. It's us.

-> It's my guess, but I think it means the boundary between the good guys and the bad guys is fading a bit. The man disunderstood himself and the boy to be the bad guys and tried to shoot them. Can't it mean that the man and the boy became somewhat similar to the bad guys that even they can't distinguish themselves from them? Or that the good guys and the bad guys are basically the same since they are all the victims of the apocalypse?

-> Beside the man and the boy, it's hard to tell whether a person is a good guy or a bad guy. On p140, the boy asks it the guys who left the bunker full of supplies are good and the man says yes and that's why it's okay for them to take supplies from the bunker. They are declaring the guys who left the bunker to be the good guys just because they gave a benefit to them. But how can we be sure that they had good intentions for the man and the boy when they built the bunker? How can we be sure that they are good or bad? It's hard to tell. In the world like this, if a person gives you benefit, that person's good, and if a person threatens you, that person's bad.





It's so fortunate that the man and the boy found the bunker. But I can't help thinking that something terrible will happen. If a good thing happens, a bad thing follows.