The ending in 25 words

Optimistic- older than man fish suggest a natural cycle of life/death- something new will come after man- everything has it's time to live/die

Statements to agree with:

'Avoiding emotional language and keeping it simple makes the narrative all the more emotionally engaging.'
The simplicity of McCarthy's language reflects the simplicity of the world in which the characters live; an unknown force has destroyed civilisation as the reader knows it and the goal is now simply to survive, not live. The minimilistic dialogue and description shows the characters' disconnection to the world, especially in the case of the man who has experienced civilisation and is now witnessing a 'cold glaucoma dimming away the world', which could mean he's now seeing the world in a different light and is watching the last remains of his past life disappear. There is simply nothing for the characters to project their emotion at, so the avoidance of emotional language reflects their existances which are devoid of feelings. Initially the simplistic language makes the reader feel disconnected to the novel since there are no dramatic climaxes to hold their attention and have them feeling empathy towards the characters, who are not even given names. However, this sense of dettachment creates a link between the characters and reader since the feelings of disconnection whilst reading the novel link in with the characters feeling disconnected from their world. Therefore, the reader is experiencing similar feelings to the characters so he/she is engaging with the narrative and understanding the charatcers' reactions to events much more than if the language was over dramatic and full of unnecessary emotion.
 If McCarthy had used strong, emotional language, the effect of making the reader empathise with the characters' dire situation would have been ruined because by keeping the language as simplistic as possible, the reader is granted a greater insight into their lives than if McCarthy had used hyperbolic language full of emotion;  then he would almost be lying to the reader since the characters' numbness and apathy towards the world would not be portrayed effectively. One example is during the wife's suicide. There are no desperate pleas from her husband and she does not even say goodbye to her son; 'the coldness of it was her final gift' and that sentence makes the scene significantly more emotionally engaging than if the man had shown his true feelings. It shows the reader that the characters actually want to be as cut off from emotion as possible and ironically this makes the reader engage with the narrative because it's inconcievable to the typical reader  why a man would not stop his wife killing herself and then why their only child would simply ask 'she's gone isn't she?' At this point in the novel, the reader feels imense pity for the characters, despite them not being able to experience this emotion themselves.

Passage of Time

Pages 197-217
References to the passage of the day:

• 'Early the day following'

Markers in the year:

• 'Three days. Four.'

Passages in which narrative time is telescoped:

• 'The following day'

Points at which narrative time expands:

• P.g. 197- '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.

References to before:

• P.g. 199- The man dreams of the past in which he visited a half destoyed library.

Points at which time is suspended:

• During the mans dreams on p.g. 199.

Abstract references to time:

• '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.