From Touching The Void Analysis
How does Joe express his PAIN?
First of all, throughout the whole article, Joe writes in first person and uses the words “I” and “me” to refer to himself. This shows how real the feelings are and all the expressions are direct and personal. Further, this also shows that he is alone in facing all these difficulties without any help.
Secondly, Joe uses a lot of metaphor expressions about fire and water to describe the extreme extent of physical pains during the mountaineering accident.
For fire expressions, he uses in the second paragraph “a fierce burning fire” to describe how painful he feels, as if some burning fire is inside his thigh. In the third paragraph, he says that the pain “burnt my groin”, reflecting how serious his pain is. In the fifth paragraph, these are further intensified by saying “my knee exploded” and “fireball rushed from groin to knee”.
For water expressions, the phrase “pain flooded down my thigh” strongly shows that his thigh is overwhelmed with the pain. Later in the fourth paragraph, the expression of “a wave of nausea surged over me” reflects the extremeness of such nausea feeling.
Thirdly, Joe uses strong direct words or phrases and to intensify his pain – “shattering blow in my knee”, “bones splitting”, “bones grated” and “ragged gasps”. Simple short and direct words, like “screamed’ and “cried out’ are used in first and second paragraphs. The visual verbs indicate how seriously the knee is broken, like “ruptured, twisted, crushed”. Emotive words like “my knee exploded” are used.
Furthermore, ellipses and short sentences, commas and breaks, e.g. “My leg!... My leg!” indicate urgency. The ellipses after “through the knee joint….” in the fifth paragraph suggests that Joe is too painful to continue with the sentence.
How does Joe express his FEAR?
First of all, throughout the whole article, Joe writes in first person and uses the words “I” and “me” to refer to himself. This shows how real the feelings are and all
First of all, throughout the whole article, Joe writes in first person and uses the words “I” and “me” to refer to himself. This shows how real the feelings are and all the expressions are direct and personal. Further, this also shows that he is alone in facing all these difficulties without any help.
Secondly, Joe uses a lot of metaphor expressions about fire and water to describe the extreme extent of physical pains during the mountaineering accident.
For fire expressions, he uses in the second paragraph “a fierce burning fire” to describe how painful he feels, as if some burning fire is inside his thigh. In the third paragraph, he says that the pain “burnt my groin”, reflecting how serious his pain is. In the fifth paragraph, these are further intensified by saying “my knee exploded” and “fireball rushed from groin to knee”.
For water expressions, the phrase “pain flooded down my thigh” strongly shows that his thigh is overwhelmed with the pain. Later in the fourth paragraph, the expression of “a wave of nausea surged over me” reflects the extremeness of such nausea feeling.
Thirdly, Joe uses strong direct words or phrases and to intensify his pain – “shattering blow in my knee”, “bones splitting”, “bones grated” and “ragged gasps”. Simple short and direct words, like “screamed’ and “cried out’ are used in first and second paragraphs. The visual verbs indicate how seriously the knee is broken, like “ruptured, twisted, crushed”. Emotive words like “my knee exploded” are used.
Furthermore, ellipses and short sentences, commas and breaks, e.g. “My leg!... My leg!” indicate urgency. The ellipses after “through the knee joint….” in the fifth paragraph suggests that Joe is too painful to continue with the sentence.
How does Joe express his FEAR?
First of all, throughout the whole article, Joe writes in first person and uses the words “I” and “me” to refer to himself. This shows how real the feelings are and all