Oliver McGuigan 1/12/11
Touching The Void Essay
Joe’s account emphasizes how physically painful his accident was and uses lots of exaggeration “…A fierce burning fire coming down the inside of my thigh.” Joe has lots of different thoughts and feeling during the passage going through all the possible outcomes “My thoughts raced madly”. Joe also writes about being lonely to make the reader sympathetic. “And very much alone”. Simon however is a realist and understands the situation and uses unsympathetic language “your dead … no two ways about it”. Simon is also careful and considerate at the start of the passage “He told me very calmly …” this shows Simon is much more relaxed in the situation. Joes account is all about him and his accident “I hung, head down, on my back”, whereas Simon’s account is about Joe and what Joe did but in his perspective “Joe had disappeared behind a rise in the ridge.” Joes account is also much longer and more detailed than Simons account.