Pages 29-49;
"Ate cold beans they'd cooked days ago"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current"- (page 30) References to time before (flashbacks)
"Tomorrow came and went" (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"Where he stood once with his own father in a winter long ago"-(page 34) References to a time before (flashbacks).
"He woke in the morning" pg 95"It could be November" pg 93
"In the evening... tomorrow... dark of night" pg 92 - all in one paragraph
"The snow fell nor did it cease to fall" pg 101
Pg 113-133
Passage of days
‘The boy wouldn’t wake for hours’ – p124
‘He wondered if it was even midnight’ – 133‘Afternoon... evening...light draw down over the world’ – in one paragraph p131
‘He was gone longer than he’d meant to be’ – gives an indication of time flying p130
Expanded narrative time‘Lingering odour of cows... and he realized they were extinct’ – p127
‘nothing in his memory anywhere of anything so good’ – p130
Abstract references
‘Phantoms not heard from in a thousand years rousing from their sleep’ – p122
Other
‘He would have ample time later to think about that’ – shows there are no deadlines/rushing p113
Pages 155-175
'He followed the man back and forth across the lawn' (Page 155) - Time is being expanded
'While the boy slept' (Page 156) - Passage of time
'The town had been abandoned years ago' (Page 157) - References to the past.
'Impossible to tell what time of the day he was looking at' (Page 164) - Abstract reference to time
'The day was brief, hardly a day at all' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time.
Page 176-196
‘How old are you?’
Similarly to the food, the old man is unable to truthfully recall his age as there is no reason for him to know it and no reminder of the date. Time and day are hypothetical things created by humans to gain a routine in life. However, mankind is dying out and everybody lives in the moment and has no cause to plan ahead, unless people meticulously count each day then it would be impossible to tell precisely when a year has passed and even if someone did work it out, what would be the point? It’s hardly like they’re going to celebrate. McCarthy uses the old man as an example to show that in the novel, the reader can never be certain as to how much time has passed, as the characters have no idea either.
‘How long have you been on the road?’ ‘I’ve always been on the road.’
Once again, in this section, McCarthy uses the dialogue between two characters to make the reader question the necessity of time; the fact that the man can’t actually remember how long he has been on the road for suggests that time is insignificant. The way that the man says he has always been on the road would suggest that time is standing still for these people. McCarthy handles time simply by putting a halt to it to show that it is just another thing on the road which is dying.
‘People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them.’
This quote is suggesting that for all the care we take over time, it doesn’t care about us. It is telling the reader that all the worry we have over keeping to a schedule is ridiculous because time is a made up thing and isn’t going to alter itself to suit us. All the people who worried and invested plans in the future, ironically, weren’t actually as prepared for the next day as they could have been where as those who take each day as it comes are surviving still as they had no expectations and don’t need time to rule their lives.
‘In the morning the stood in the road’
McCarthy gives the reader absolutely no idea what time in the morning they are talking about to once again highlight the lack of importance time holds for people on the road. All they have to go by is the road; they walk along it when it is light enough and sleep when it isn’t, to them it is completely irrelevant what time it is as they have no goals in life other than to get to the sea as quickly as possible with no real aim when they get there, meaning that they can take as long as they need to.
‘In the night he woke in the cold dark’
McCarthy uses this phrase to lead onto ‘coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw’ to fit in with the image that cold dark night quite often symbolise death, something that we know is imminent for the man but the way the author associates it with time suggests that his time is running out quickly.
Pages 197-217
'Early the day following'
'Three days. Four.'
'The following day'
'When three men stepped from behind a truck'- time expands because there is suddenly a lot more detail than the narrator usually gives; this is because it's a tense, potentially dangerous situation but also could be because it's a break from their monotonous daily lives, so every moment is taken in.
'They had not gone far'- The novel's characters use distance instead of time as a way to measure their progress, since time is now meaningless but their journey is vital to their survival.
"Ate cold beans they'd cooked days ago"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current"- (page 30) References to time before (flashbacks)
"Tomorrow came and went" (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"Where he stood once with his own father in a winter long ago"-(page 34) References to a time before (flashbacks).
"He woke in the morning" pg 95"It could be November" pg 93
"In the evening... tomorrow... dark of night" pg 92 - all in one paragraph
"The snow fell nor did it cease to fall" pg 101
Pg 113-133
Passage of days
‘The boy wouldn’t wake for hours’ – p124
‘He wondered if it was even midnight’ – 133‘Afternoon... evening...light draw down over the world’ – in one paragraph p131
‘He was gone longer than he’d meant to be’ – gives an indication of time flying p130
Expanded narrative time‘Lingering odour of cows... and he realized they were extinct’ – p127
‘nothing in his memory anywhere of anything so good’ – p130
Abstract references
‘Phantoms not heard from in a thousand years rousing from their sleep’ – p122
Other
‘He would have ample time later to think about that’ – shows there are no deadlines/rushing p113
Pages 155-175
'He followed the man back and forth across the lawn' (Page 155) - Time is being expanded
'While the boy slept' (Page 156) - Passage of time
'The town had been abandoned years ago' (Page 157) - References to the past.
'Impossible to tell what time of the day he was looking at' (Page 164) - Abstract reference to time
'The day was brief, hardly a day at all' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time.
Page 176-196
‘How old are you?’
Similarly to the food, the old man is unable to truthfully recall his age as there is no reason for him to know it and no reminder of the date. Time and day are hypothetical things created by humans to gain a routine in life. However, mankind is dying out and everybody lives in the moment and has no cause to plan ahead, unless people meticulously count each day then it would be impossible to tell precisely when a year has passed and even if someone did work it out, what would be the point? It’s hardly like they’re going to celebrate. McCarthy uses the old man as an example to show that in the novel, the reader can never be certain as to how much time has passed, as the characters have no idea either.
‘How long have you been on the road?’ ‘I’ve always been on the road.’
Once again, in this section, McCarthy uses the dialogue between two characters to make the reader question the necessity of time; the fact that the man can’t actually remember how long he has been on the road for suggests that time is insignificant. The way that the man says he has always been on the road would suggest that time is standing still for these people. McCarthy handles time simply by putting a halt to it to show that it is just another thing on the road which is dying.
‘People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them.’
This quote is suggesting that for all the care we take over time, it doesn’t care about us. It is telling the reader that all the worry we have over keeping to a schedule is ridiculous because time is a made up thing and isn’t going to alter itself to suit us. All the people who worried and invested plans in the future, ironically, weren’t actually as prepared for the next day as they could have been where as those who take each day as it comes are surviving still as they had no expectations and don’t need time to rule their lives.
‘In the morning the stood in the road’
McCarthy gives the reader absolutely no idea what time in the morning they are talking about to once again highlight the lack of importance time holds for people on the road. All they have to go by is the road; they walk along it when it is light enough and sleep when it isn’t, to them it is completely irrelevant what time it is as they have no goals in life other than to get to the sea as quickly as possible with no real aim when they get there, meaning that they can take as long as they need to.
‘In the night he woke in the cold dark’
McCarthy uses this phrase to lead onto ‘coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw’ to fit in with the image that cold dark night quite often symbolise death, something that we know is imminent for the man but the way the author associates it with time suggests that his time is running out quickly.
Pages 197-217
'Early the day following'
'Three days. Four.'
'The following day'
'When three men stepped from behind a truck'- time expands because there is suddenly a lot more detail than the narrator usually gives; this is because it's a tense, potentially dangerous situation but also could be because it's a break from their monotonous daily lives, so every moment is taken in.
'They had not gone far'- The novel's characters use distance instead of time as a way to measure their progress, since time is now meaningless but their journey is vital to their survival.
Pages 218-238
'They stayed in the house for four days eating and sleeping'. Time is contracted into a short paragraph.
'Long days.' Time has suddenly moved on, we cannot tell whether it is days or weeks.
'An hour later...' Chronological order.
'With dark they built a fire.' Shows the turning of day to night.
'In the morning...' Chronological order.
Page 234: Flashback, 'he remembered walking once on such a night...' he is comparing his old beach memories to his experiences on the beach now. He is remembering a better time. This is significant because flashbacks occur throughout the novel as a running theme.
Time-
'Long days.' Time has suddenly moved on, we cannot tell whether it is days or weeks.
'An hour later...' Chronological order.
'With dark they built a fire.' Shows the turning of day to night.
'In the morning...' Chronological order.
Page 234: Flashback, 'he remembered walking once on such a night...' he is comparing his old beach memories to his experiences on the beach now. He is remembering a better time. This is significant because flashbacks occur throughout the novel as a running theme.
Time-
Pages 260-280
"He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark" p.262
"...the fire had died down almost to ash and it was a black night" p.266
"When he woke again" "Grey daylight" p.268
1) "The wintery dawn was coming" p. 266- This suggests that the months are later in the year. We depend on hints like the weather and how McCarthy describes the sceneary to establish/ estimate what time of the year it is.
2) "The earth itself contracting with the cold" p.279 This tells us that it is winter time or maybe the Earths condidtion is just becoming even worse so it is getting colder. Either suggestion could tell us that the novel has moved to the winter months of the year.
3) "What time of year?" p.279 This contradicts the hints of what time of year it is, because the man and the boy do not even know, so it is impossible to be certain what time of year it is.
Pages 302-307
'Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains' 'On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming'
"He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark" p.262
"...the fire had died down almost to ash and it was a black night" p.266
"When he woke again" "Grey daylight" p.268
1) "The wintery dawn was coming" p. 266- This suggests that the months are later in the year. We depend on hints like the weather and how McCarthy describes the sceneary to establish/ estimate what time of the year it is.
2) "The earth itself contracting with the cold" p.279 This tells us that it is winter time or maybe the Earths condidtion is just becoming even worse so it is getting colder. Either suggestion could tell us that the novel has moved to the winter months of the year.
3) "What time of year?" p.279 This contradicts the hints of what time of year it is, because the man and the boy do not even know, so it is impossible to be certain what time of year it is.
Pages 302-307
'Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains' 'On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming'
'He cried for a long time'
'You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow'
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