Month: March 2018

1.) Mood and tone is significant to the selected text of Silent Witness – Chapter 8.

Mood refers to the atmosphere (or feelings) which Joe creates in a passage of writing. Where as tone refers to the attitude of the writer which Joe describes towards what is happening in the passage.  Moods and Tones are significant to the text because it shows the reader the atmosphere of the mood that Joe is in and what Joe’s presents to the mood with his attitudes and feelings which is tone. These moods and tones are illustrated by Joe’s use of word selection, language techniques and sentence structures/syntax.

A selected text that demonstrates the importance of the use of moods and tones is “I stared at the mountain rising over me. Empty. It was a pointless thing to have done – climb up it, across it, and down it. Stupid! It looked perfect; so clean and untouched, and we had changed nothing, It was beautiful, immaculate, but it left me empty. I had been on it too long, and it had taken everything.” 

As the reader I interpret this passage of mood illustrated by Joe to be that the mountain is grande, still, untouched and perfect. I understand this mood from the text because of Joe’s word selection of beautiful, immaculate and clean which creates to me a image that the atmosphere of the snow is bright, silky and flawless. However the tone that Joe presents in the readers understanding is that Joe portrays a frustrated attitude towards the mood because Joe feels that all the hard work he has accomplished on this mountain has left no evidence of his hard work. I visualize this because of the word selection in the phrases ‘It was pointless’ ‘we had changed nothing’. Also as the reader I perceive that Joe’s frustration has built up from his low self esteem as Joe is on the verge of death and feels like if he dies he will be worthless as individuals will look towards the mountain and see that Joe has conquered nothing.  As the reader I also understand from the text that Joe’s tone to the text is he feels drained as he feels he has invested his blood, sweat, tears and time on this mountain for to long and has gained no sense of accomplishment.  I understand this with the phrases ‘it left me empty’ ‘I had been on it to long’. I also perceive this by the language technique used of personification with the selected test ‘it had taken everything’ as Joe feels that the mountain a non living physical object had stole everything Joe had possessed like a human presence.

2.)Another text that implements moods and tones is “This place was ageless and lifeless. A mass of snow, and ice, and rock slowly moving upwards; freezing, thawing, cracking asunder, always chasing with the passing of centuries. What a silly thing to pit oneself against!” 

As the reader I understand from this text that the mood described by Joe is lonely and timeless. I envision this with imagery portrayed by the word selection of ageless and lifeless. This image is encountered as the reader can visualize no other organism of life which due to my experiences of being alone presents me to the emotive language of loneliness which I can only picture Joe feeling the same way.  Also the mood of timeless pops to mind due to the word selection of ageless. Because of my personal perception, the first thing that springs to mind from the word ageless is the age of people. And as the age of people increases the look of them changes. However in this case the mountain is ageless meaning it doesn’t look significantly different or changes over time therefore bringing up the mood of timeless as time passes by without anything changing. As the reader I also understand the tone Joe presents to the text which is he feels ashamed and stupid. This is because Joe describes the mountain to be superior by selecting words like ageless but also stating the processes the mountain undertakes that cannot be stopped unlike himself. Joe also uses figurative language of personification to show how the mountain cannot be stopped as if it were ageless. The text states ‘always chasing with the passing of centuries’ as if the mountain could perform a human action of chasing. As the reader I also perceive the tone that Joe feels stupid and ashamed by the word selection of ‘silly’ in his final quote of “What a silly thing to pit oneself against!” This demonstrates to me that Joe feels stupid and ashamed to even try to conquer this near impossible climb. With my biases and experiences I also perceive that Joe feels this way as iv’e been in situations where at the beginning, I felt confident something was easy or possible but then attempted it and realized its not so easy with the skills I possessed, feeling stupid and embarrassed/ashamed when confronting the individual that I had said I could do it. A specific example of this was when I was the age of 8 thinking I could swim a length of 100metres, telling all of my friends I could do it with barely any swim lessons or expertise. However when attempting it I soon realized this was extremely difficult and failed feeling stupid and embarrassed in front of my friend gaining a low self esteem afterwards.

 

1.) Contrast is significant in the used sections of text. Joe describes his surroundings of the crevasse below him as the of the dark void of the inescapable end and the sky above him as the chance of existing life of light. The demonstrates the concept of contrast as both the crevasse and the sky described by Joe are of polar opposites which is why the contrast so significantly.

The selected text “the stark blackness of the drops, too deep for the light to penetrate…the black space held untold horrors….staring at the black hole in front of me….the dark spaces menaced” portrays the crevasse in Joe vision. However Joe contrasts these dark, horrific images with the descriptions of the night sky with: “small hole in the roof, where the sky was cloudless, packed with stars, and moonlight was adding its glow to their bright sparkle.”

The reader understands from Joe’s descriptions of the contrasting images of the crevasse and night sky is that Joe’s feelings are connected with the descriptions of the images. The reader also can visualize that when Joe is looking down towards the near impossible crevasse negative feelings present themselves as Joe can only think of the reality of the ‘odds’ of getting down the mountain. However when Joe looks towards the sky Joe presents himself with the thought of a glimmer of hope as it illustrates the event he has put himself in. This is because although the sky is mostly packed with clouds there is a small hole where you can see the stars. As the reader I perceive this to be an analogy of Joe’s situation as although things seem to unfavor survival there is still a glimmer of hope he will make it down.

2.) The rope in the text between Joe and Simon is significant as it symbolizes the connection and accountability that exists between Joe and Simon. However Joe’s hope disappears as well as the connection and accountability that exists between the rope as Joe no longer believes they are connected.

The text states ‘Maybe he heard me just then? He won’t leave unless he’s sure. How do you know he’s not dead already? Did he fall with me? Find out… pull the rope’ shows the constant questions asked by Joe in his mind and the selected text ‘So he must have hit the slope and stopped. He would be dead. He must be after that fall’ shows the conclusion Joe has come to after the pull.

The reader understands from Joe constant thoughts and before and after the pull of the rope is that before the pull of the rope hope still lingures between the connection and accountability of Joe and Simon on the rope. As the reader I perceive this because Joe constantly questions that there is still a possibility that Simon is still alive and tethered. But also because of Joe’s and Simon’s strong bonded relationship Joe cannot 100% believe that Simon is dead for certain until he see it for himself.  However after the pulling the rope testing if Simon is still alive and receives no response, Joe forces himself to believe that he is dead so that he can realize that he can’t rely on Simon no more and take action on his own.

 

State your point/topic (first point) : e.g Simon’s narration is significant in “Disaster – Chapter 5”

Expand with relevant background detail (second point) : e.g Simon’s narration is told through Joe’s perspective, however Simon validated Joe’s account as “fair and correct”. Simon’s “voice” reveals that he represented Joe’s injury and that he felt justified in distancing himself from Joe.

Examples (specific) : e.g text states “…” The reader is told “…” It is revealed “…” Words like “…” The selected text “…” tells us “…” 

Response (your response). What does the reader learn? What does the reader think/visualize/feel? What connections can the reader make to other experiences or context? What is the overall purpose/message? e.g The reader understands from his narration that Simon is calculating the value of his life against Joe’s. He also treats the situation logically and considers the “odds” of their survival, if Joe is assisted down the mountain . This presents an interesting reality about human nature: Should we risk our own life for others? When does our relationship or commitment to a person end? It is excusable to relinquish responsibility when we are endangered ourselves. In the response line you can include a cross reference to a relevant situation, person, place, time… 

1.) There are many problems for the men when trying to descending the mountain they have just climbed. This problems include temperature, dehydration, Joe’s broken leg, time, environment and frost bite. The extreme temperature of the cold climate provides many issues for the men as for one the penetrating temperature can force death to occur as hypothermia can take place. This also leads the men to obtain frost bite in their fingers which consequently produces less feeling in their fingers meaning when the men are attempting tasks the completing of the task cannot be done or the accomplishment is dramatically slower.  A quote that presents the effect of frostbite was “It wasn’t until I tried to slip off my left wrist that I realized how useless my hand were. Both were frozen.” Another problem to men was dehydration. This was always in the back of the men’s mind since the gas cooker got exhausted of gas as without it there would be no melting in snow to drink. This is essential as water is one of the key foundations to support life and without it a human can only survive a maximum of 2 days with devastating effects along the way. The main dilemma was the dehydration affecting the men’s mental state which therefore produces hallucination, false statements and affects their decision making.  A quote that shows the effect of dehydration to Simon’s mental state was “I smelt the water in the snow around me and it maddened me.” To add another problem to the men was the climax of the journey so far which occurred to be Joe’s vital fall generating a broken leg. Having to endure a broken leg has to be the biggest problem faced for the men for multiple reasons. Firstly with Joe’s broken leg, this limits his physical ability of strength, balance and mobility affecting the completion of tasks when operating down the mountain. Secondly the pain furiously attacking Joe puts stress in Joe as physically he could perish from internal bleeding and mentally as the main subject on his mind is the conflicting pain. And thirdly for Simon physically he has to carry Joe’s weight which creates stress on his muscles losing more energy but mentally having to decide whether to abandon Joe or suffer and risk his own life saving a loved partner.  A quote that displays the fire burning pain that Joe is feeling because of his leg was “The pain had reached a level beyond which it wouldn’t go.”

2.) Joe uses structural syntax and narrative techniques to create a tension build up when getting lower into a drop or the ‘void’. Joe uses the punctuation of comma’s in simple sentences to create a pause and build up tension which emphasize the sentence. Joe will also add short passages of short sentences to create a rushed feeling. An example of this is with the quote “A hundred feet. Fifty? I had no idea.”

Joe  also includes foreshadowing in the text  to create tension which is where the author indicates or hints future events creating tension for the reader as the reader starts to anticipate the future event like what is going to happen, where is going to happen, how is it going to happen and who with. In this case Joe foreshadows that a negative event will take place due to the emotion and reaction when realizing that the speed he was getting lowered increase dramatically. The selected text “I’m going down fast but it’s steady. He’s trying to be quick … that’s all. I knew it to be true, but there was still something wrong.” implements the area of foreshadowing.  Me as the reader understands from Joe’s narration that although Joe felt like he knew what was going on, he still sensed a presences that something was not right.

1.) The chapter title ‘On the Edge’ represent the entire chapter by summarizing the events by the use of this language technique of a pun. A pun is a key word or phrase that when used in the right context has two or more meanings almost as a ‘play on words’. On the edge literally is defined as on the brink of an object which in this case is the men on the edge of the mountain. However the other meaning of the phrase perceived by others of ‘On the edge’ is that you are in a precarious position where you are in highly dangerous situation that doesn’t take much fault to lead you in a severe injury or even death.

2.) A language technique used by the author to create a mental, emotional or physical strain/tension is by the consistent use of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is stating a feeling or prediction before the event has occurred. This is cleverly illustrated by the author in chapter 4 as it creates tension for the reader as the reader starts to get a immense sense of feeling that something bad is about to occur. An example of this is with the quote “We had been on the mountain for over fifty hours and perhaps had become attuned to potential threats; so much so that I had sensed something would happen without understanding quite what it would be”. This quote demonstrates foreshadowing as Joe has this ‘gut’ feeling that something unfortunate was coming however not knowing what it could be. This inserts a mental tension for readers as they have this sense that something bad is occurring but doesn’t know what or when it is going to happen.