During the end of the novel there is pathetic fallacy – it is raining which gives a better image, and gives an appropriate atmosphere.
Graham Greene occasionally drops hints of hope for Rose, which makes it more effective, as you are not completely sure of the outcome. “He gave her one more chance: ‘You’d have always stuck to me,’ and when she nodded in agreement, he began wearily the long course of action which would one day let him be free again.”
Graham Greene adds lots of effect, and tension to the ending. “I’ve put up the safety – catch. All you need to do is pull on this. It isn’t hard. Put it in your ear – that’ll hold it steady.” This gives a very imaginable image, and gives a burst of realisation of what is really happening. At this point in Brighton Rock I feel resentful towards Pinkie that he could talk of this in such a laid back fashion. He is making it seem like it is nothing out of the ordinary, and trying to make it pass as quickly as possible.
Then Rose has further doubts and confusions of what to do. “She took the gun; it was like treachery. What will he do, she thought, if I don’t . . . shoot. Would he shoot himself alone, without her?” This builds up anxiety and tension, and sets the scene, in a very effective way. The doubts of Rose build up suspense or what she will do.
“He said, ‘We don’t want to wait any longer. Do you want me to do it first?’ ‘No,’ she said, ‘no.’” Here Pinkie is making Rose feel guilty, hoping that she will then shoot herself, believing he will do the same. In this part I feel angry towards Pinkie that he is really going to let Rose kill herself. In earlier parts of the novel, I felt quite a lot of sympathy towards Pinkie but that is forgotten, as he is being so cruel to Rose.
“Again he gave the sense that he was playing a game, a game in which you could talk the coldest detail of the scalping knife or the bayonet wound and then go home to tea.” I think this is very effective as it is true that he, in a sense he is playing a game, and he is hoping to just get on with his life after Rose is ‘out of the way.’
After Dallow has arrived, Pinkie repeatedly asks Rose ‘Where’s the gun?’ and she answers ‘I threw it away.’ I think this is to make it clear that Pinkie has nothing to protect himself, and he is not in control, because of Rose.
“She could see his face indistinctly as it leant in over the little dashboard light. It was like a child’s, badgered, confused, betrayed: fake years slipped away – he was whisked back towards the unhappy playground.” This reminds us that Pinkie is only a boy, 17, and at this point I feel sympathy for Pinkie, he has no one to advise him what to do, he is confused.
“Then she couldn’t tell what was happened: glass – somewhere –broke, he screamed and she saw his face – steam. He screamed and screamed, with his hands up to his eyes; he turned and ran; she saw a police baton at his feet and broken glass. He looked half his size, doubled up in appalling agony: it was as if the flames had literally got him and he shrank – shrank into a schoolboy flying in panic and pain, scrambling over a fence, and running on.” I think that passage is very effective, the confusion of what is happening and describing Pinkie as a schoolboy. It makes it unclear what is really happening, just as Rose is feeling, but then you realise what has happened, and it comes as more of a shock. Pinkie is only a young boy, and it gives a more vivid image, describing him as a panicking schoolboy. Again I feel sympathy for Pinkie as we are told earlier on in the novel, one of Pinkie’s biggest fears is to drown, and this is what happened to him.
The last words of Pinkies death were “whipped away into zero – nothing.” I think this is very effective as it describes Pinkies current situation, bluntly. He is there no more, and is not even a person anymore – he is nothing. He has been “whipped away into zero” and will not return.
I feel sorry for Rose, and irate towards Pinkie as the story then finishes, with Rose realising that Pinkie never really loved her, and reflecting back on this situation must be terrible for Rose. Pinkie just wanted to get rid of her, with everyone else thinking he was innocent.