10 sections

1. Beginning 0 – 242. 25 – 583. 59 – 82 4. 83 – 1075. 108 – 1356. 136 – 1587. 159 – 1848. 185 – 2109. 211 – 23110.232 – end

Take a section each and make notes about the narrative on your sheet.

Scenes and places: Derelict buildings like the gas station and they show that the world they are in is modern and real. However, all the things we recognise as modern have become relics.

Time and sequence: Time is sped up to set the scene and to describe the surroundings.

Characters and characterisation: The Man. The Boy – he is devoid of ambition and he’s unchild like. However, he does have some child like traits such as asking a lot of questions, but these are related to death and are linked to his situation and experiences.

Voices: Narrator: metaphorical and poetic.The Man: cold and cynical.

Point/s of view: 3rd person & 1st person.

Destination: Between pages 0 and 24 there is no clear destination other than the idea of survival, there seems to be no vision of the future.

Themes: Death – it seems that death is inevitable from pages 0-24.Survival – their existence os based around survival – for example, finding food and shelter.

Section 1

Scenes and places: An abandoned house, mountain landscape, the woods. All of these environments have a bleak description and are spoken of as if the lives of the Man and the Boy reflect the destroyed environment – “ash”/”bodies”.

Time and sequence: The narrative spends a lot of time on moments when the Man talks about his past, as if the reader is listening to him speak. Time is also spent on description, but is sped up when the Man and the Boy travel on the road.

Characters and characterisation: The Man – leadership, hope, faith, direction, protection.The Boy – questions, pessimism – these characteristics work together, however the absence of hope within the Boy eventually affects the Man.

Voices: Narrator: descriptive, heavily using simple language, but going into lots of detail. (Bleak descriptions & comments on death.)The Man: cold, instructive voice, occasionally comforting towards the Boy but with little effect.

Point/s of view: 3rd person & 1st person.The Man’s personal reminiscing indicates hope that a safe haven might be found. However, it could also show desperate thinking to feel better about this hideous environment.

Destination: Heading for safety, location unknown.The destination is unknown, but the Man’s attitude indicates that somewhere is to be reached, but it isn’t revealed where this will be.

Themes: Trust/faith & doubt/survival/resilience.The Man and the Boy move onward, towards survival however, a sense of doubt and loss filter their minds.

Section 2

Scenes and places: Two locations: flashback and the road, filled with survivors.

Time and sequence: Partly in the past, flashback to undetermined time and place, focuses attention on gravity of the event (the woman leaving). Time is then stretched for events on the road.

Characters and characterisation: The Man – becomes a deeper character as an example of loss is detailed in the flashback sequence.The Boy – de-characterised after the shooting.

Voices: Most varied number of voices – the Man, the Boy, the Woman, and the Scavenger. All these voices combine to add chaos to an already helpless situation.

Point/s of view: Tightly focused omniscient narration, remaining tied to the Man.

Destination: Aside form the original destination, the true destination is to survive the situation. This makes the narrative highly tense as it is the first example of a true threat.

Themes: Loss/rules of the new world. These themes are coupled with continuing motif of death (witnessed on the road/implied in the flashback with the Woman).

Section 3

Scenes and places: Food market – the town.Changes from paragraph to paragraph.They are still making their way towards the south.

Time and sequence: Time shifts from place to place – sometimes from setting to setting – night/evening to morning.Time moves between paragraphs, they are constantly on the move.

Characters and characterisation: The Boy becomes child like and fascinated by seeing another child – “I wanna see him papa”. The other child and the dog give some hope.

Voices: The Man – dominant, he doesn’t say yes to keeping the dog or the other child.The Boy – innocence, constantly asking questions.

Point/s of view: Page 91 –” they” to “I”.Mostly an omniscient narrator like the rest of the narrative but controlled to focusing on the Man and the Boy.

Destination: Some sort of climax coming – near miss with the tribe.They end up back on the road and back into their routine, back to their ‘normal’ journey.

Themes: Death – the Boy constantly asks if they are going to die.Survival – life/winter.Trust – the ides of belief in each other.

Section 4

Scenes and places: The road – descriptive, woods – towns.Highest ground to sleep.House – descriptive, bodies, murder.

Time and sequence: Chronological.

Characters and characterisation: The cannibals and their victims – the victims are dehumanised (the “herd”)

Voices: The ManThe BoyThe victims – screaming for help.

Point/s of view: Third person, omniscient narration.

Destination: Heading towards more disaster, showing villainous actions: could be heading to a resolution for the problem.

Themes: Death, survival, paternal love, good versus evil.

Section 5

Scenes and places: On the road until they discover a bunker with food, water and beds.

Time and sequence: Chronological order. There are images of the past with the discovery of the bunker.

Characters and characterisation: The innocence of the Boy and the discovery of the bunker show that the boy has no memories of the past.

Voices: The narrator.

Point/s of view: The Man’s view as he says “how long until death?” and “check the house” – showing his thoughts.

Destination: The bunker gives hope to the characters, aiming towards a ‘good’ ending.

Themes: Good versus evil – the Boy asks who owns the bunker and are others “good”.Survival – as they find the bunker just after the man worries about death.

Section 6

Scenes and places: Abandoned streets and woods.

Time and sequence: When walking they see an Old Man who had visions that someone would come and help him.Chronological.

Characters and characterisation: The Man, the Boy, Old Man (Ely).

Voices: The Man, the Boy, Old Man (Ely).

Point/s of view: We see Ely’s point of view when he discusses whether “there is no God, we are his prophets”.

Destination: They left the Old Man – hope that other people are still alive. .

Themes: Innocence, paternal love, trust, faith and doubt.

Section 7

Scenes and places: The road, the street, the train tracks, the train, old fashioned drug store.

Time and sequence: Chronological, goes ahead in time.

Characters and characterisation: The Man, the Boy, Old Man (Ely).

Voices: The Man and the Boy.

Point/s of view: Both characters points of view – there is dialogue between them to give their thoughts to the reader.

Destination: Looking for long term safety and protection, whilst attempting to escape from the land.

Themes: Survival, death, paternal love.

Section 8

Scenes and places: This section begins at the ocean – the place they have been journeying to. The beach provides some safety and floods of memories and they get careless.The inside places are small and confined – the ship represents the lost world. The unending horizon suggests hope and eternity.

Time and sequence: Flashback – remembering the Woman – as with other places, the old world triggers memories.The Boy gets sick – mostly told in chronology, with very short sequences through the night.

Characters and characterisation:

The description is almost inhuman – skeletal.Questions – the Boy – terror and fear, he cries.

Voices: Dialogue between the Man and the Boy – reassurance and questions.Contrast in realities – trusting & hopeful from the Boy/angry and resentful from the Man.

Point/s of view: Omniscient – following the Man, who tries to see things from the perspective of the Boy.Possibly God?

Destination: They have reached the destination of their journey, but where will they go now? The South is very vague. The impending death of the Man – he is shot in the leg with an arrow and this ends in his death.

Themes: Death – end of the journey to the sea – memories of the past.Paternal love – teaching, reminding, protecting.Survival and resilience – unloading the boat, confronting the thief.

Section 10