The Boar Hunt - Quotes and Analysis - Jose Vasconcelos Flashcards
The men are delighted to have such easy targets, and slaughter the animals indiscriminately for hours
- DELIGHTED - the men are incredibly happy to have masses of wild boar run all over their camp, not thinking how they are going to transport them all back, just for fun
- INDISCRIMINATELY - ruthlessly shooting boars at random, not searching for the best one to kill and take home as a trophy, killing far more boars than could ever be justified
Imposing range of mountains in the interior
- Creates a sense of intimidation, shows how grand mountains are
- How small the hunters are in their shadow
Our shots were now sporadic, well aimed, carefully husbanded
- Shows how the tables have turned on the hunters and their sudden dangerous state
We entertained ourselves killing birds that flew into the sunlight during the siesta hour
- The hunting party seem out of tune with the landscape, killing for fun rather than necessity
- Also serves to create feelings of antipathy in reader towards the men, since they have no real care for the jungle or its inhabitants
From time to time, the boars pressed against the tree, pushing it and making it creak, eager to smash it quickly
- Onomatopoeic words like CREAK and SMASH force reader to share the terror of the men, trapped in their hammocks
- Creates suspense
We welcomed them with howls of joy and well aimed shots
- Reader repelled by blood lust displayed by men, often highlighting their wanton acts of violence
- Men graciously welcome them, all feelings of anxiety gone
- HOWLS - portrays men as monsters
- Shooting with no specific target, inhuman and heartless
We laughed at their snorts, quietly aimed at those who were near, and bang! a dead boar
- Men supremely egotistical, mock the boars, thinking they are in control of the situation
- Use of onomatopoeia is cinematic, easily visualise
- Irony of this enjoyment and mockery will soon become apparent to the reader
- Instead of being the hunters, they become the hunted
Organised like an army
Marching in compressed ranks
- Indicates how clever and lethal boars can be
- Extended military metaphor
- Suspense created, since reader’s mind is focused on their potential for organised violence
- Warlike terminology to create tension which occurs as story progresses
- Extended martial metaphor creates anthropomorphic tension, implication that the boars are an organised fighting force willing to attack
They were preparing to take revenge on us for the ruthless nature of man, the unpunished destroyer of animals since the beginning of time
- Vasconcelos maintains his focus on the ecological theme of the story to the finale
- He can be seen to be an innovative thinker and writer whose views on the need to respect the planet and all its inhabitants coincide with widely views held in our own times
An instinct made us take refuge in our hammocks
- INSTINCT - informs the reader that the men feel vulnerable although unsure why
- REFUGE - suggests men already feel the need to hide in a place of safety
- Heightening tension
Surrounded by the unknown
- UNKNOWN, SURROUNDED - allow the reader to acknowledge how the men feel uneasy
- Increases feelings of tension and distress, at a disadvantage, don’t know what to expect
- Nature is against them here
A slight feeling of terror made us laugh, cough, and talk
- TERROR - hunters have become intimidated by dangerously beautiful jungle
- starting to think they have made a mistake, shake it off
- don’t want to show one another how they are feeling
- awkwardly continue conversation
At 4:00 pm we noticed an alarming shortage of our ammunition
- Reader now begins to recognise that story is moving to a potentially dark conclusion, from this point on, Vasconcelos adds increasing amount of hints to the reader
Unexplored underbrush into which we could only enter by going down the river in a canoe
- Dangerous, untamed jungle
- mirrors savage nature of the story itself
- part of the reason for the death of the men since they are far less adept at surviving in the jungle than the boars
