Touching the void – Critical Questions

From the first sentence, we immediately know that this part of the text is set at a campsite. Over the next few lines, we get a bit more backstory to what has happened in recent days. From the line “the sight of my blackened fingertips”, and “I’d forgotten they were damaged”, we get the feeling that this isn’t the first encounter the characters have had with climbing and cold weather. A man named Richard is introduced and is presented to us seemingly holding a grudge about previous events. The statement “He was quiet as he prepared breakfast”, shows us that recent events have affected his behavior and that he isn’t normally like this.

Lima, a place the narrator introduces, is portrayed as the place where they live or have been staying at whilst they endeavor across cold landscapes.

The narrator has used harsh words and more emotive language to make the text more vivid and give us some connections from the text to ourselves. Words like ‘bitter, diminished and unrelenting’, give the story more depth in that we feel what they feel. We aren’t told from the text who is speaking but from the material given, they have been through many hardships. The narrator and Richard, through vivid writing, are presented as having a bond to each other in some way but are relenting their company.

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