Enduring Love – working through the novel. As you read the novel, make notes on the themes listed below
Theme: The rational - Science/emotion/Religion – what drives the characters’ actions?
Chapter number
1
Quote and page number
P2 I’m holding
back…lingering
Comment on theme and technique
Joe is a scientist who likes to take refuge in mathematical certainty
and ‘comforting geometry…as it offers ‘reassuring clarity
P1..I don’t recall ..making
a decision
Emotional or rational? Did Joe have to time to think before acting?
How does this tie in with his job as a scientific writer?
P14-p15 cooperation..the basis of
our earliest hunting
successes,…but
selfishness is also
written in our hearts
Joe’s sense of detachment is emphasized as he rationalizes and
debates altruism versus cooperation. Highlights his character
P16…No forgiveness, no
special dispensation for
flesh..only ruthless
gravity
2
P19‘What surprised me
was she already crying
…whereas to me, sorrow
seemed a long way off
The religious allusion and the personification of gravity highlights
Joe’s rational mind.
Emphasizing lack of emotion
However, Joe is talking wildly so much so that Clarissa said she
thought she should slap him.
….As in a dream, my
emotional responses
were non-existent or
inappropriate
P25…God has brought us
together…I think you
have a special need for
prayer?
P26…because my
friend…no one’s listening
3
4
P33 You’re so rational
sometimes….you’re like a
child
P43 It was my emotional
condition, the mentalvisceral state I had yet to
understand
This highlights the importance of the meeting for Jed Parry
Joe is a rationalist and does not believe in God
Joe questions Clarissa’s comment…shows his scientific mind
Joe is trying to find a rational explanation but he is still coming to
terms with the tragedy. He loses control of his thoughts,
Enduring Love – working through the novel. As you read the novel, make notes on the themes listed below
Theme: creation of suspense – withholding information (use of first person narrator) stalking, cliff-hanger
Chapter number
1
Quote and page number
P1 This was the moment
The transformation was
absolute
P2 I’m holding
back…lingering
P2 the encounter that
would unhinge us was
minutes away…
P9 the beast was
tamed….the wind
renewed its
rage..shimmer of strain
P12 …let me freeze the
frame…there’s a security
in stillness
2
P17…Best to slow
down…
P18 …there were subtler
Comment on theme and language techniques
The first person narrator delays and withholds information and is in
control of the narrative. It is Joe’s account of the balloon incident.
Repetition of the importance of the incident without giving away the facts
Use of metaphor, simile,sensory imagery, especially in the first paragraph.
Also personification, alliteration
Use of different perspective – the buzzard; Joe
Using photography imagery to create tension.
Note also the role the wind plays as its power ebbs and gushes…it is stilled
but is also a raging force
Withholding information
elements exerting
powerful sway over the
future. ….The afternoon
could have ended in
mere tragedy.
P20…My thoughts were
up there on the
screen…this man is in
shock. He want me to
help him….Had I known
what this glance meant
to him
The first time Joe meets Jed….hint of the key role Jed will play in the story
P23…I was looking at
Parry as though for the
first time.
3
4
P37 … I made my first
serious mistake..was
nothing…Wrong number
go to sleep
P39 What bothered me
that morning as I typed
up my piece was a
disquiet, a physical
sensation I could not
quite identify
Technique of preparing the reader for what is to come. He realizes that he
should have said something about Parry’s phone call.
Joe is back at work; he feels safe in rational thought but he does not feel at
ease and has no rational explanation. He realizes it was the phone call.
P42…creaking of
floorboards…I saw a
flash of a white shoe and
something red…
P43 Who was the person
who had just left? Why
so suddenly?
10
19
P163 Would I remember
the conversation now if I
did not know what it
preceded?
P167 Or were these
details I observed later,
in the chaos, or in the
time after the chaos?
Another example of the
confusion hindsight can
cause memory
Joe has a sense of someone watching him and he looks for trainers with red
laces but he cannot rationally explain it…
Joe tries to fix his attention on his work but the image of the trainers
returns to his mind….he uses logic to work through a number of questions
before he decides on apprehension…..
Enduring Love – working through the novel: Characterisation
Chapter number
1
Quote and page number
Comment on character
Joe is awkward about recalling the incident. He is interested in science
and facts and seems obsessed by tiny details.
Clarissal is a Keat’s scholar and seems to be more emotional
2