Title
• Things We Didn’t See Coming
• Otis does see these ‘things’ coming. His
statements to his son suggest we did see
them, we just didn’t care to do anything about
it.
What are the ‘things’ we didn’t see?
• Not the environmental and technological
collapses: we are aware of their threats.
• Perhaps we didn’t see the humanitarian
disasters; the human repercussions and how
the environmental and technological disasters
would impact upon our relationships.
Structure
• The unnamed narrator is a literary device
used by authors to:
• Encourage the audience to read it as ‘I’; to put
themselves in the narrator’s place and read it
from a personal perspective.
• To create the sense that it could be anyone,
anywhere.
Structure
• Narrative arc: Things We Know Now and Best Medicine
• Things We Know Now: Otis and the narrator agree to
meet in a safe place in the forest. Otis holds the
narrator; the narrator feels loved, protected, secure.
• Best Medicine: Otis holds the narrator; the narrator
realises: ‘…what I know now…’ is ‘…that it’s better here
with him than anywhere I’ve been.’ Again the narrator
feels loved, protected, secure.
• TWDSC emphasises: despite the world’s turmoil, there
is a safe place; not a physical location, rather an
emotional one with his father.
TWDSC is a science fiction novel.
• Best categorised as belonging to the dystopian
fiction genre or the post-apocalyptic fiction
genre.
• Amsterdam writes about a future world in
which our current social fears and issues
(climate change, technological breakdown,
lack of resources, disease) have become a
reality.
The novel’s settings are irrelevant.
• The various settings help to create the
circumstances necessary to explore the
human issues.
• TWDSC deals with human issues regardless of
the setting.
• Indeterminate places and times shift the focus
to the characters and their dilemmas.
How do we gain safety and security?
• Taking it from others (Liz & Jenna)
– By separating them the narrator can gain some
financial security by selling the wine and rugs.
• Finding someone to love (Margo & Juliet)
– The narrator feels physically secure in his relationship
with Margo, but emotionally insecure.
– The narrator agrees to extra-union sexual
relationships while with Margo to ‘protect his heart’.
– The narrator believes a union with Juliet will afford he
and Margo material security in uncertain times.
How do we gain safety and security?
• Building community (Predisposed)
– Surviving is more manageable when the burden is
shared
• Family love (Grandparents, Otis)
– What We Know Now
– The Theft That Got Me Here
– Best Medicine
TWDSC asks:
• What kind of world are we creating now?
• What will really matter at the end of the
world?(morals)
• What should we expect and accept from our
relationships? (physical or emotional security)
• Is it better to survive coldly or die warmly? When
and how in our lives might our answer to this
change?
• What is home and how do we find it?
• How do we prepare for the future?
Exam Questions
•
•
•
•
Hope
Humanity
Love
Connecting with others
The narrator does not change.
•
•
•
•
S: Always searching for something
S: Always helping people
S: Struggles with the need to steal to survive
S: Conflicted and alternates between acting
morally and selfishly
The narrator does not change.
•
•
•
•
C: An innocent boy to a tough survivor
C: Relies on Margo for safety and survival
C: Selfish and cunning to patient and tolerant
C: Thinks survival is more important than
emotional security but comes of age; realises
and accepts the truth of the situation
• C: Motives for helping people change
The narrator does not change.
• Ultimately: as the narrator’s physical world
and being deteriorate, his reliability and
emotional being strengthen.
The narrator loves Margo.
• Offers him a sense of safety and protection
• Feels desperate and lonely after Margo abandons
him
• Genuinely committed to Margo via their union
• Willing to act immorally to please her
• Margo is dominant in the relationship and
exercises power over the narrator
• The end of their relationship signifies a step
toward liberation from a compromised existence
The narrator is trustworthy.
•
•
•
•
•
Often talks about sex but is looking for love
Tells us the truth about himself.
Keeps information from us.
Only looks out for himself.
Doesn’t have to be trustworthy, no-one else is.
The narrator dies at the end.
• Ambiguous.
• With limited information we must draw our
own logical conclusions.
• What is clear, is that he has made peace with
his father. He has succeeded in making human
contact under incredibly compromised
circumstances.
• The narrator realises the value of family and
that the father/son bond cannot be broken.