From Touching The Void

Question 1

“I felt a shattering blow in my knee, felt bones splitting, and screamed” (Line 2)

Answer 1

Violent images

Question 2

“Simon would be ripped off the mountain. He couldn’t hold it” (Line 5-6)

Answer 2

Future tense- makes it more immediate/punchy

Question 3

“The impact catapulted me…” (Line 3)

Answer 3

Catapulted - metaphor -> word used outside of its normal context

Question 4

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 1

Answer 4

• High concentration of (violent) dynamic verbs
• Short sentences -> Simple -> happening in quick succession/rapidly
• Past tense (autobiography) -> Some of paragraph is also future

Question 5

“Everything was still, silent” (Line 8)

Answer 5

Contrast to first paragraph

Sibilance/alliteration

Question 6

“Then pain flooded down my thigh- a fierce burning fire” (Line 9)

Answer 6

Flooded and fire = Mixed metaphor

Question 7

“Building and building” (Line 10) , “My leg!.. My leg!” (Line 11)

Answer 7

Repetition

Question 8

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 2

Answer 8

• Descriptive
• Dramatic paragraph
• Lots of metaphors

Question 9

“I didn’t connect it with the pain which burnt my groin”(Line 15)

Answer 9

Burnt = continued extended metaphor

Question 10

“The pain eased” (Line 17)

Answer 10

Lifts tension

Question 11

“A wave of nausea surged over me” (Line 19)

Answer 11

Water metaphor (cont)

Question 12

“I’m dead” (Line 22)

Answer 12

Short effective sentence

Question 13

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 4

Answer 13

• Lots of ellipses -> Show broken though process and panic

- Direct thought in inverted commas

Question 14

“My knee exploded” (Line 25-26) etc

Answer 14

Strong imagery

Question 15

“Bone grated, and the fireball rushed from groin to knee” (Line 26)

Answer 15

Fireball = continued metaphor

Strong imagery

Question 16

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 5

Answer 16

• Ellipsis at the end of paragraph is EDITED TEXT
• Lots of violent images
• Lots of short sentences

Question 17

“I felt my head spin” (Lin 32-33)

Answer 17

Idiom (metaphor) - conventional word/phrase that is a metaphor

Question 18

“And it seemed to grow with every second that I stared” (Line 37)

Answer 18

Subjective perception

Question 19

“I would never get over it” (Line 38)

Answer 19

Double meaning

Question 20

“I could feel myself teetering on the edge of it” (Line 42)

Answer 20

Double meaning

Question 21

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 6

Answer 21

• Uses more context
• Emotive language
• Direct thought

Question 22

Stuff in PARAGRAPH 7

Answer 22

Talks about feelings to engage reader

Question 23

“Suddenly”, “lashed out taut”, “braced myself” etc

Answer 23

Violent words

Question 24

“Breaking trail” (Line 45), “Crested the rise” (Line 56)

Answer 24

Words from the semantic field

Question 25

“You’re dead”, “I might also die”, “knew he was dead” (paragraph 11)

Answer 25

Repetition

Question 26

“It was all totally rational” and the rest of paragraph 11

Answer 26

Simon is persuading himself and the reader

Question 27

Other stuff In PARAGRAPH 11

Answer 27

-2nd person thought

Question 28

Other stuff in PARAGRAPH 12

Answer 28

• Thinking about himself -> repetition of ‘I’ / first person pronoun
• Simon appears ‘calloused’