Quotes

This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man's brains out of his hair. That is my job.

This is so detathed and cold. He talks about it as a meaningless thing, the event in the quote is so atrotious but he is talking about it mundainly and came to accept it and the fact that they are living in a disgusting world. When he says it is his job he now treats it as something he is not attatched to permenantly like he would be, for he did not say something like "it is my duty" which means you do it because you feel obliged to do, rather than being forced to, however you do a job because you need to.

Yes I am, he said. I am the one.

This quote is a bleak statement, though in other contexts being "the one" is considered special and powerful, in this it merely means he is the only one who would take care of his son now, so this shows the depressing journey they have ahead of them, as they have no one but eachother, so very isolation...al...


Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams. Corned beef.

The list of food makes it seem a lot of more precious than it would be in other circumstances; it is listed in awe, and is written almost poetically. Though these foods would usually not be of great value and certainly would not be eaten together it shows the how priorities have changed because of the doom on the planet.


Are we still the good guys, he said.

This shows a sense of morality in the book, morality is not very big in this book as everyone is so desperate and morals and ethics are forgotten, it shows the boy is still worried about it after the atrocities which are happeneing. Showing that he is not as effected by world as the man is.

We should go, Papa, he said. Yes, the man said. But he didn't.

This again shows coldness towards the man's opinion on life, he knows that he should go, but he is far too curious with what is happening, this shows either bravery or recklessness, the boy is almost used as a voice of reason, through out the book, and in this case the man is no longer listening to reason, as no one does when they give up on life.

The snow fell nor did it cease to fall.

This is a strange sentence. The easiest way to write this would have been, "it snowed for a long time" or "it snowed all night" but he chose to say it didn't "cease" to fall. This could be because earlier on in the book, it says about how the snow was dangerous, so by this it could mean that it was the man's thoughts of that it was never going to cease being dangerous.
Okay? Okay.

In this scene the Man is trying to convince the son there is nothing they can do for the other man who has been struck by lightning, though the boy tries to make them do something he gives up when he realises how pointless it is fighting it, though it seems they agree by using the same word, it isn't it is a surrender.

They sat on the edge of the tub and pulled their shoes on and them he handed the boy the pan and soap and he took the stove and the little bottle of gas and the pistol and wrapped in their blankets and they went back across the yard to the bunker.


This sentence though very long gives no detail. It shows the blankness of what their lives have become. It does not explain why. or to what avail the actions described do, merely just says what they did, showing that their lives have come purely down to instinct and rythm, like the way animals live.
Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth.

'Tolling' usually signifies the single sound of a bell, in this quote it shows the emptiness of the world and its decent into darkness. Also another expression used with tolling, is deathtoll, and these are associated bringing a death theme to the sentence.
She was gone and the coldness of it was her final gift. 

This quote shows two sides to sides to the death of the wife. Though she kills herself for (it seems to be) selfish reasons it did in a way help the man and boy, by her not being there it means they dont have to find so much food as she is not living, this is shown because of the word "Coldness" because inanimate objects are associated with cold.