Preview

Compass and Torch Notes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
674 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compass and Torch Notes
Compass:

- Device for finding you way
- They don't have the compass - Can't find a way to work their relationships out

Torch:

- The torch could signify that they can 'see' how they want their relationship to be but because they do not have the compass they can't get their.

Other Notes

' with bleached end-of-summer grass, bruised here and there with heather and age-old spills of purple granite' Very descriptive but the boy doesn't take notice of it. (Boys detachment from nature occurs throughout.)

- Is the detachment from nature because of a troubled family life? (Mum and dad divorcing,arguing) or is it just because he is interested in his dad?

'He is watching the man' - Trying to understand how a father behaves, what a father is.
Dad is introduced as 'Man'; 'He is watching the man: the way he strides to the gate' - Shows that the the relationship between father and son is not 'close'.

However changed to dad in 'The boy is intent. Watching Dad' - Veering from the 'man' to 'dad' - The boy is unsure.

'The boy misses a breath' - When dad almost gets something wrong the boy is worried - Hero-worshipping, Idolising Dad, Trying to believe that he is this 'perfect' human and that his mum is wrong about him.

'I brought my torch!' - The boy seeks appreciation from his Dad (hero)

'Mad, was calling it, as e knew she would' - Very common for children to be caught up in disputes between divorced parents. To constantly here contradicting views on events/actions that involve children etc.

- ' I found my torch' - Torch is mentioned a lot through out - Boy possibly finds comfort in the torch.

'Forced himself to put the torch into Jim's...hand' - The torch is reserved for dad? Only him and his dad can really experience the torch'

'Oh, says dad, good 'good' - Referring to torch - Dad is distracted through out. Takes little notice of the boy ( Some people have said it's because the dad is nasty) - I think the dad is concerned on

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Miles Pequeno Check Mate

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fathers are usually the most significant person in a boy’s childhood. In the essay “Check. Mate?” this is no different. Writer Miles Pequeno takes on an exciting journey of a son searching for his father’s approval. Which in fact did an excellent job in showing the silent trials a dad puts his young son through. The scene is set as the two go after each other during heated matches of evening chest matches.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A mother and grandfather and daughter discuss the new baby’s features. “But who does Daddy look like?”…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the poem, the son refers to the father as “Baba” which shows the affectionate and innocent side of the boy when he is little. The boy is pleading with his dad to tell him a story, yet the roles are reversed later when the father is begging for the son to allow him to tell a story to him. This ironic switch of roles shows the complex relationship as the father is not in the position of authority that he should be in to begin with. The father is supposed to be the leader and role model for the son, and the father is worried about things changing in the future. He sees the point where the son is a grown man and is no longer in need of his father for everything. When the son becomes a man, he will no longer have the same innocent and affectionate characteristics he has now, and he will rely on his father in a different way. However, again the father is failing the son in his present need for a story therefore setting the precedent that the father will not fulfill the needs of the son and that he is not reliable because he cannot live in the moment. Relationships in themselves are complex as they grow and change overtime, but the father is unable to enjoy the different stages of his relationship with his son because he is constantly worried about the…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    White's Childhood Lake

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He felt like his father because with his son he remembers doing the same things that his father did when he was younger, and he felt like his son because his son was doing some of the same things he had done with his father when he was a boy.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, the son, Johnny, is "too shy to ask his own father" (Garner 65) if he would go to a scout meeting with him. The fact that he was too shy to ask for himself shows that…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Now Watch This

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Andrew Hood’s Now Watch This, the strange setting represents the contrast between the father and son.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later we learn how ‘the writer’ is a ‘relative of Mrs Drablow’ and is in a not unusual predicament, being ‘unmarried and with child’. Although we do not find out directly who he father is we do learn that he can be referred to as ‘P’.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every time the father speaks, he speaks with confidence. When the son shook his head after the father asked him if he wanted some soup he said “Buck Up, I’ll get you there” (2) as they left the ski resort and passed the diner on their way home. The father does everything necessary to keep his word when he found out that the road was closed and may not get cleared in time. When they got back to the diner and were waiting for their order he said “I can’t let it happen”, (3) “I’ll tell you what I want. I want all of us to be together again. Is that what you want?” (4) As soon as his son said “yes sir” (5) he replied, “that’s all I needed to hear” (6) and then proceeded towards the telephone booth.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dialectic Journal The Road

    • 1756 Words
    • 8 Pages

    fire” is used in the book to demonstrate that no matter how hungry, powerless, or tired the boy…

    • 1756 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout history fatherhood has evolved from the hunter gather, to the Pre-Industrial, to the Industrial, to the modern 21st century (Burgess). Through each era the role of a father involved him to simply provide for his family, which meant going away and not spend time with them. Even in the 21st century fathers are required to spend a great deal of time away from their wives and kids. Being a father entitles much more than just providing for the family. It entitles a father to bond and help raise his kids. Without the presence of a father, kids grow up struggling through life. The role of a father is to provide support and positive interaction in a child’s life, without these elements a child loses the ability to fully experience life. Ashley Rhodes the author of “Fatherhood is Essential” covers these main points in her essay by providing examples of her own experiences with her father. Support in a child’s life is one of the key elements that shapes the type of person that child will become in the future.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story uses powerful symbols to reveal deep meanings within the relationship between the father and son, such as the title, ‘Compass and Torch’. The compasses in this story represent guidance in their relationship. By forgetting them, this shows that they both have no sense of direction, therefore are lost. The torch (which they both remember) uses the symbolism of light to show that they both hope to find their relationship, shown in the line, ‘two torches are for lighting a bigger space in the wilderness, for lighting it together. Two torches are for father and son to back each other up.’ Yet later on in the story, the man’s actions show that he gives up this hope.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the man returns to the car, looking at his son, while he is holding up the torch – he becomes extremely sensitive: “He is looking away, seared by the glitter of anxiety in his little boy’s eyes” (P.8.l.14).…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Family Supper - Essay

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The father is intimidating. Physically, he is described as a “formidable-looking man with a large stony jaw and furious black eyebrows” (198, p.4). His intimidation is reinforced by his communication and gruff answers to questions and “his odd way of stating each remark as if it were the concluding one” (198, p.4). The narrator recalls a memory of his father’s fury and dislike for long talks, when he is hit as a child for ‘chattering like an old woman’ (198, p.4).…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Compass and Torch

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The compass can also be seen as a metaphor for the pull of the boy between the divorced parents. This can be shown when the boy had gone upstairs looking for his torch and overhears his mother and her boyfriend, Jim, who is the only named person in the story, talking in the kitchen.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nick followed his father to an Indian camp to witness his father help a women through childbirth. At first glance “Indian Camp” seems to be about a boy’s right of passage experience, as he witnesses a child’s birth. This beautiful feminine act is however described through masculine eyes, and therefore is more about the father’s development than it is about Nick’s or the Indian woman. But this story also unarguably represents an initiation, or a loss of innocence for Nick. When the “young Indian stopped and blew out his lantern”. The literal shift from lightness to darkness signals the metaphorical separation for Nick. He is no longer sitting in his comfort zone.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics