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The Cone-Gatherers. Chapter 1. Setting. Novel opens with ideal setting. Very beautiful. Jenkins uses imagery to create vivid pictures in our head. “much sunshine.” “homely.” “branches as comfortable as chairs.” “blue sky.” “seals had been playing tag…like children gone home for tea.”.
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The Cone-Gatherers Chapter 1
Setting • Novel opens with ideal setting. • Very beautiful. • Jenkins uses imagery to create vivid pictures in our head. • “much sunshine.” “homely.” “branches as comfortable as chairs.” “blue sky.” “seals had been playing tag…like children gone home for tea.”
Analysing the setting • Point: Jenkins creates an ideal setting at the start of the novel. • Quote: “branches as comfortable as chairs.” • Analysis: This simile is used to compare the trees to chairs to demonstrate that the trees are comfortable and also so that we associate the trees with a home.
Setting 2 • The setting changes abruptly and unexpectedly. • The descriptions change from peaceful and calming to violent and destructive. • “destroyer.” “sudden and swifter than hawks.” “roaring.” “shot down.” “gunshots had cracked.”
Analysing the setting 2 • Point: Jenkins creates a threatening setting to demonstrate that the war is never far away. • Quote + Analysis: Word-choice of “destroyer” demonstrates threat. • Word-choice of “sudden and swifter” shows the threat is fast moving and unpredictable. • Onomatopoeia “roaring” and “cracked” allow reader to experience loud noises associated with warfare – all create tense atmosphere.
Setting – what is Jenkins trying to achieve? • He creates an ideal to setting followed by a threatening setting. • This is deliberate to show us that this ideal setting is always threatened by the war. • The setting may appear ideal, like the garden of Eden, but danger is never far away – the war and Duror threaten the wood at all times.
Characters - Neil • Appearance: “tall, thin, grey-haired” (p10) • Personality: “appearance of harsh meditation” (p10) – deep thinker. • “ ‘We’re human beings just like them’ “ (p3) – bitter towards the upper classes. • “To look after his brother he had never got married…that memory often revived to turn his heart melancholy”(p4) – given up a lot to care for Calum.
Characters - Neil • Attitude to nature: Takes it for granted in comparison to Calum. • He is more concerned with the human world. • Treatment of animals: “ ‘surely they’re more to worry about than a rabbit.’” (p7) – realistic and adult in his views.
Characters - Neil • Treatment of Calum: complex relationship. • Love – given up so much for Calum. • Protective – protects him from Duror and people in general. • Anger/Frustration – “ ‘ Are you a monkey?’”(p2) • Admiration – “ ‘You’re better and wiser than any of them.’” (p4)
Characters - Neil • Neil’s frustration with Calum is often a result of his frustration with life and their situation. • “he knew that what Calum represented, pity so meek as to be paralysed by the suffering that provoked it, ought to be regretted perhaps, but never despised.” (p7)
Characters - Calum • Appearance: described through Duror’s eyes. • “hunchback”; “dwarf”. • “He was humpbacked, with one shoulder higher than the other; he had no neck, and on the mishapen lump of his body sat a face so beautiful and guleless as to be a diabolical joke.” (p10) • Deliberately describes Calum through Duror’s eyes – why?
Characters - Calum • Attitude to nature: • Point: Calum is at home in nature • Quote: “as indigenous as a squirrel.”(p1) • Analysis: This simile and the use of the word “indigenous” shows that Calum belongs in the trees as much as the animals do.
Characters - Calum • Attitude to nature: • Point: Animals also love Calum. • Quote: “Chaffinches fluttered around him, ignoring his brother.”(p1) • Analysis: This beautiful image portrays Calum as a figure like St Francis of Assisi. Demonstrates his goodness that wild animals trust him.
Characters - Calum • Personality: child-like and trusting. • Mentally simple and the representation of goodness in the novel. • “his sunburnt face was alert and beautiful with trust.”(p1) • Word-choice very positive “alert”, “beautiful”, “trust”.
Characters - Calum • Treatment of animals: Can’t understand pain and suffering. • When he rescued the rabbit he “merely yielded to instinct.” (p6) • His goodness is not something he can control. It is part of who he is. • Comparison between Calum and animals?
Characters - Calum • Treatment of Neil: Love in its simplest form, no complications. • “Every time he caught his brother’s foot and set it on a safe branch it was an act of love.”(p5) • Wants to please Neil.
Characters - Duror • “big”, “rage”, “quiet”, “intimidating”. (p5) • First description of Duror. • As Calum represents good, Duror represents evil in the novel. • When we meet him he is described as “hidden” (p9) – IMPORTANT. • An ever-present but invisible danger – like the war.
Characters - Duror • The wood:
Characters - Duror • Attitude to Calum: Look at how he sees Calum (see slide 11). • Disgusted and obsessed by Calum. • “It was almost as if there were not two brothers, but three; he himself was the third.” (p13) • Link between Duror and the brothers.
Characters - Duror • He is completely alone in his feelings towards the brothers. • “Duror was alone in his obsession. No one else found their presence obnoxious.” (p10) • His pity for the rabbit is “for having so recently been the victim of the hunchback’s drivelling sorrow.” (p11) • What does this show about Duror’s perception of reality?
Characters - Duror • Attitude to the Runcie-Campbells: • “he hated and despised them far more than ever he had liked and respected Sir Colin and Lady Runcie-Campbell.”(p9) • Respectful of the upper classes; believes in the social order.
Characters - Duror • Attitude to weakness: “Since childhood Duror had been repelled by anything living that had an imperfection or deformity or lack.”(p10) • Duror’s hatred for the weak is part of who he is.
Characters - Duror • Look at page 12 – who does Duror remind us of? • Quote?
Characters - Duror • The war:
Summary • Chapter one is intense and full. • It introduces the main characters and their feelings – it forces us to form opinions of them too. • It also sets up the main themes of the novel: good and evil; war; class conflict.
Chapter 2 • This is the chapter where we find out what other people think of Duror – this is very important in understanding his character. • We also find out what Duror’s family situation is and we come to realise that he has a very difficult home life. It is clear that Duror has been very unhappy for many years and this could be a possible reason for his state of mind. • Jenkins also uses this chapter to reveal the extent of Duror’s madness.
How other people view Duror • Dr Mathieson: • “stalwart figure”(p14) • “monarch of the woods”(p15) • “he was known as a man of restraint, reticence, and gravity” (p18)
Obviously, Duror is a handsome man and, physically, he contrasts directly with Calum. There is a nobility and grace about the appearance of Duror which is apparent in the word “monarch”. • He is also a respected member of the community – VERY IMPORTANT!
“poor Duror for all his pretence of self-possession and invulnerability had been fighting his own war for years” (p17) • People also sympathise with Duror because of his wife’s condition.
“God knew how many inhibitions, repressions, and complexes were twisting and coiling there, like the snakes of damnation” (p16) • However, Dr Mathieson clearly knows that there is something wrong in Duror’s mind. Word-choice of “twisting and coiling” suggests that his problems are complex and difficult to understand. The comparison with the snake and the use of the word “damnation” also has biblical connotations – Duror is the dangerous snake (satan) in the garden of Eden.
Mrs Lochie: • Mrs Lochie clearly blames Duror for Peggy’s condition. She is a bitter woman who blames God and the world for her daughter’s illness. Although she is a minor character, she is important in our understanding of Duror. Her treatment of him makes us feel sorry for him and also serves as an explanation for his discomfort in his own home.
The atmosphere in the house is uncomfortable and tense. The comedian on the radio (p25) and Peggy’s childish laughter serves as a contrast.
Relationship with Peggy • It is made clear that Peggy was once a vivacious and beautiful young woman. She made Duror very happy and they were clearly in love. • “The sweetness of her youth still haunting amidst the great wobbling masses of pallid fat added to her grotesqueness” (p20) • This description is very similar to the one on page 10, when we see Calum through Duror’s eyes. This is how he sees Peggy. This image is both powerful and disturbing. Jenkins has deliberately chosen words to repulse the reader – to allow us to share Duror’s feelings and relate to his character.
“Her wheedling voice reminded his of the hunchback’s” (p21) • The connection between Peggy and Calum is obvious. Word-choice of “wheedling” (onomatopoeia) is negative and allows us to hear Peggy’s
