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Prose annotation task: The Dead Hand

Prose annotation task: The Dead Hand. David Saunders. Key Themes. Societal struggle: Familial care and love Role of the government – non existent and helpless or omniscient/present/potent ? Victimization – accidental ? Fear and panic: Fear of an unknown disease or affliction.

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Prose annotation task: The Dead Hand

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  1. Prose annotation task: The Dead Hand David Saunders

  2. Key Themes • Societal struggle: • Familial care and love • Role of the government – non existent and helpless or omniscient/present/potent ? • Victimization – accidental ? • Fear and panic: • Fear of an unknown disease or affliction. • Brevity and fragility of human life

  3. Literary Devices & Techniques • Dramatic Irony: • “…[the illness] looked like severe pneumonia.” the readers are aware that it is something more sinister. • Incorrectly referring to the illness as “very rare”. • Emphasis and heightened significance: • The word “—infection!—” is isolated, italicized and has an exclamation mark, showing both structural and thematic importance. • Catalogue of descriptive words: • “They were… suffering from high fevers, headaches, coughs, vomiting, chills and chest pains.”

  4. Literary Devices & Techniques • Descriptions of the government and military are harsh and strong: • “Guns, steel and industry…” • Alliteration: “…Stark five story apartment buildings, shops and schools.” “…Coughs, vomiting, chills and chest pains.” • Frequent pace changes: new paragraphs are often started with abrupt and negative points.

  5. Literary Devices & Techniques • Use of contrasting descriptions: • “streets lined with small wooden cottages …were broken up by stark five-story apartment buildings, shops and schools.” • Imagery: • “…hundreds of men worked in shifts in a cavernous building …with large, high windows.” • “[doctors] white gown” – symbolic of cleanliness and hope • Statistics and impersonal address to contrast emotion: • “Compound 19” and hotel “No. 24”.

  6. Important Concepts & Ideas • Emotional disorganization vs. political/civil rigidity: • Hotels are referred to as “No. 20” and “No. 24”, which seems strict and regimented, which contrasts with the emotional feelings generated in the extract. • “she tried to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to one ill patient” - a very emotional and selfless action.

  7. Important Concepts & Ideas • Death from “deadly pathogens” • Panic inducing and deeply horrific. Fear of something that cannot be seen. • “There was panic when people saw them [disinfection workers]” – deep irony • Brevity and fragility of human life: • “Death came quickly to victims” • Impending doom and inexorable fate: • “Soon, patients began to die at Ilyenko’s hospital, too” – Use of the word “too” shows that the death and illness is compounding and increasing, where it was once “rare”

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