Essay on Brian Keenan's 'An Evil Cradling'

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A Level English Literature and Language Specification A, for AQA. Unit 1.

Essay on Brian Keenan's 'An Evil Cradling'

In "An Evil Cradling," Brian Keenan uses language to convey many different mental and emotional effects, both negative and positive, caused by captivity. The most obvious negative emotional effects are fear, anger and despair, all of which are shown to varying degrees. Looking at more positive effects, the relationship that developed between Keenan and John McCarthy and the inner life that acted as a "haven" for them comes across as being of huge importance to him.

One of the main negative effects that someone who had not undergone that experience might expect, is fear. This is, perhaps surprisingly, not dwelt upon as much as one might expect. In the extract there are no explicit references to feeling fear, although in the last paragraph, where Keenan describes his cell being emptied of all contents, his language does hint that this is a fairly frightening situation. He describes how he and John McMarthy sat in the "freezing silence" ... "wondering what was happening." The pairing of the adjective freezing with the abstract noun silence can be read in different ways. It is of course possible to interpret this lexis choice as intended to give the reader purely factually information, but this phrase, whether intentionally or not, brings to mind the expression, "frozen with fear." The adjective freezing serves to make the silence seem more real, more of a phsyical presence in the room, than a mere lack of sound. When contrasted with the descriptions of Keenan and McCarthy's racuous games and laughter and physical extertations, the silence that descends after the cell is emptied belies the fear of the unknown and despair at their situation and unknown future. They manage to light a candle, and Keenan uses the simile "the tiny blue flame was like ourselves," describing how they are both "struggling to stay alive." He continues: "exhausted with the struggle [the candle] was snuffed out," and on first reading it is not immediately clear that Keenan has dropped the simile and is now talking only about the literal candle. His description of the dying candle is chilling because it hints that Keenan may fear that he or McCarthy may because exhausted with the struggle and "snuff out." This is speculative, but is giving credence a little later in the book, when a suicidal fellow prisoner leds Keenan to consider his own despair at the possibility of giving up, asking himself how a man could do such a thing, reassuring himself that "the fury of life" would overcome the desire to die.

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Elsewhere in the book are more explicit references to fear, but fewer than one might imagine. Although Keenan uses the adjective "fearful" twice shortly after his capture, to describe his cell and his captors, he describes two memorable moments relatively on in his captivity in which he felt deep fear, both relating to a fear of being physically tortured. The first comes soon after he is kidnapped when he discovers a pair of pliers. Keenan uses the transitive verb "mesmerised" to describe how he stared while trying to stop his imagination from "running wild" at the "horror" at their ...

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