touching the void
Basics:
• Relies on its structure for its effect:
○ The parallel accounts of the same incident told by the two different people involved from their own perspectives.
First person point of view from two different standpoints.
Exploring:
How does the writer help the reader to appreciate the physical impact of the accident?
• The use of first person pronouns emphasises the personal nature of the account, and the active nature of the piece is demonstrated by the openings of the paragraph in Joe’s account:
○ First person pronouns include:
‘I’ such as in the phrases ‘I hit’, ‘I jerked’, ‘I struck’.
Remember such pronouns could include ‘I’ or ‘we’ and refer the to narrator.
□ ‘I’ is a first person singular.
□ ‘We’ is a first person plural.
○ Activity verbs hat begin paragraphs include:
‘Hung’, ‘kicked’, ‘dug.
• The vocabulary used is emotive rather than technical or factual:
○ The phrase ‘my knee exploded’ has an emotional impact upon the reader.
• Language is used to emphasise the pain and destructive force of the accident:
○ ‘Shattering blow’.
○ ‘Ruptured’.
○ ‘Searing spasm of pain’.
○ ‘Screaming’.
○ ‘Grotesque distortion’.
• Repetition is used for emphasis:
○ ‘building and building’.
○ The repetition throughout the passage of the word ‘screamed’.
• Short sentences used for effect:
○ ‘My leg!’.
○ ‘I screamed.’.
○ ‘I’m dead.’.
How does the writer help the reader to appreciate the psychological impact of the accident?
• The use of ellipsis helps to mirror the fractured though processes of the writer and so creates tension:
○ ‘Everyone said it… if there’s just two of you a broken ankle could turn into a death sentence… if it’s broken… if… it doesn’t hurt so much, maybe I’ve just ripped something.’.
• A growing sense of panic represented through the repetition of ‘if’ and the use o direct speech as the writer tries to calm himself:
• Relies on its structure for its effect:
○ The parallel accounts of the same incident told by the two different people involved from their own perspectives.
First person point of view from two different standpoints.
Exploring:
How does the writer help the reader to appreciate the physical impact of the accident?
• The use of first person pronouns emphasises the personal nature of the account, and the active nature of the piece is demonstrated by the openings of the paragraph in Joe’s account:
○ First person pronouns include:
‘I’ such as in the phrases ‘I hit’, ‘I jerked’, ‘I struck’.
Remember such pronouns could include ‘I’ or ‘we’ and refer the to narrator.
□ ‘I’ is a first person singular.
□ ‘We’ is a first person plural.
○ Activity verbs hat begin paragraphs include:
‘Hung’, ‘kicked’, ‘dug.
• The vocabulary used is emotive rather than technical or factual:
○ The phrase ‘my knee exploded’ has an emotional impact upon the reader.
• Language is used to emphasise the pain and destructive force of the accident:
○ ‘Shattering blow’.
○ ‘Ruptured’.
○ ‘Searing spasm of pain’.
○ ‘Screaming’.
○ ‘Grotesque distortion’.
• Repetition is used for emphasis:
○ ‘building and building’.
○ The repetition throughout the passage of the word ‘screamed’.
• Short sentences used for effect:
○ ‘My leg!’.
○ ‘I screamed.’.
○ ‘I’m dead.’.
How does the writer help the reader to appreciate the psychological impact of the accident?
• The use of ellipsis helps to mirror the fractured though processes of the writer and so creates tension:
○ ‘Everyone said it… if there’s just two of you a broken ankle could turn into a death sentence… if it’s broken… if… it doesn’t hurt so much, maybe I’ve just ripped something.’.
• A growing sense of panic represented through the repetition of ‘if’ and the use o direct speech as the writer tries to calm himself: