the cone gatherers summaries

Seite 1

chapter one

in the opening chapter we are introduced to Calum and Neil who are high up in the tress gathering cones. It is set during WWI and the forest is to be cut down for wood and needs to be replaces, this is the reason for gathering cones.

we also find out that Calum is very compassionate to animals and is very sensitive to their pain. He has released rabbits from their traps which angers Duror, the main character in the novel.

the reader begins to learn of Durors shocking opinions. He hates the brothers, in particular Calum because of his deformities and wants him out of the wood.

chapter two.

in chapter two we meet Dr. Matheson as Duror is walking home from the woods. He offers Duror a lift home, which for Duror is an inconvinence as he will have to make small talk with the doctor.

The doctor seems to be more interested in the lack of food due to the war and is not at all happy about is as he is used to fine foods such as venison and whisky.

Duror returns home to a desperatly unhappy home life. His wife, Peggy, is morbidly overweight and is bedridden. We also meet the dour, hostile mother in law Mrs Lochie. She blames Duror for her daughters misfortune and wants him to spend more time with her.

Knowing that Duror is reppelled by anything with deformities we know he is unhappy about this.

Chapter three

in this chapter we are introduced to Lady Runcie -Campbell's rather clumsy son, Roderick. We are also introduced to his sister Sheila and their uncle Captain Forgan.

it is in this chapter that Duror involves Mrs. Matheson, he cook, housekeeper and Lady Runcie-Campbell in to his plan to destoy the cone gatherers.

Chapter four.

this is day two- in a dicussion with Lady R-C Duror suggests that Calum and Neil should be used as beaters in the deer drive. She asks Mr Tulloch and he agrees that they can be used.However, he phones back to explain that Calum has scruples over being a beater. Lady RC asks Duror for advice and her christain values are overcome by her aristocratic values.Later though she proposes a comprimise- that only Neil be used. Duror will have none of it, and so uses the excuse that the brothers will not seperate. thus the fateful deer hunt is still to go ahead.

Chapter five.

In this chapter we learn of Neils worries for Calum. He is fearful of Calum's fate should anything happen to him.

Duror tries tp climb the tree but suffers from dizziness. The brothers learn that they must take part in the deer drive. Neil, furious on Calums behalf, tells Duror that they are free men and that they will not take part.

Calum out of love for his brother, agrees to try his best to take part.

Chapter six- the deer drive

Lady RC orginises a deer hunt in honour of her brother, Captain Forgan who is on leave from serving in the war.

Neil is outraged on behalf of Calum that they have been asked to act as beaters. Neil insists that they do not take part again. but are still made to.

It is in this chapter that Duror reveals to others the phycological probelms that he has being facing.

Duror has a vison about his wife which is unusal as he loves her in the vision but makes out as if he doesnt in reality.

Chapter seven

he main development here is the respect shown towards the cone gatherers in Ardmore: shopkeepers, policemen and in the café. This forms a contrast to the lack of respect shown towards TCG by LRC and Duror. The author’s purpose is to develop the reader’s sympathy towards Calum and Neil and to make the events which follow all the more unreasonable and cruel.

Chapter eight

Roderick’s innocence is shown in the way that he has not grasped the differences between social classes. The incident with the car foreshadows a larger social conflict later when Roderick will believe again that his mother acts unreasonably towards the cone gatherers.

As a consequence of the scene at the Deer Drive Duror has a doctor’s appointment .The theme of internal conflict is revisited in the scene with Duror and Dr Matheson. Duror gets a diagnosis of the roots of his illness. Dr Matheson continues to be the reliable witness so his conclusion is right: This is the reason for Duror’s madness:

Chapter nine.

The chapter begins with Duror contemplating suicide, but at this point in time he has no means to do it.

He continues to feel there is no solution – so he goes drinking… alone

In the pub a soldier tells a joke about a pet ape.

The mistake of the joke brings everybody onto the cone gatherers side, the soldier sincerely appoligises in the act that it was a genuine mistake.

Chapter ten

Just as Calum’s arrival in Ardmore unsettled Duror and created internal conflict in Duror so too the Cone Gatherers arrival has also created a conflict inside LRC – but this time the conflict is a social one. There are two sides to LRC

Later in this chapter Roderick plans to take the cone gatherers a cake as a peace offering following his mother’s behaviour in not offering them a lift. He is prevented however by the presence of Duror outside of their hut

Thus the characterisation of Duror is developed to the stage where Duror is not simply influenced by evil, he has been overcome by it, and is evil personified.

Chapter 11&12

The Beach Hut scene is crucial to our understanding of the novel. Having offended LRC at the Deer Drive and having promised to keep out of her way circumstances and the need for survival force the cone gatherers to take shelter in the Beach Hut during the most ferocious storm of all. This begins the process of the final casting out of Calum and Neil from the wood: their sin is to break a social convention and the instruction not to bother LRC, it is ultimately because of class division that they are ordered to leave.

Storm is the use of pathetic fallacy to add a dangerous atmosphere to the story and to foreshadow another storm in the chapter. Inside the Beach Hut they find some discarded toys: a broken doll.

The doll symbolises how Calum feels about himself.

The nakedness of the doll reminds us of the accusations against Calum.

The doll foreshadows a reappearance later in the story.

The pathetic fallacy adds mood.

“loudest peal” tells us that this is an event of the greatest importance – the storm is at its highest

Real storm in the chapter is between LRC and the Cone Gatherers, they offended her previously (The Deer Drive) now they do so again. She does not let them stay (as her Christian conscience would have allowed) she forces them out into the dreadful weather – her social upbringing leads her to take a decision which removes sympathy from her and places it on the cone gatherers.

Chapter 13

The doll is a device which shows outwardly the change of in Duror which has happened inwardly. The doll (innocence) in his hands is ruined (raped). When speaking about he speaks in foul terms about “seed” suggesting that Calum has masturbated over the doll where the reader knows (dramatic irony) that it was, in fact, Duror. Thus innocence has been lost and the characters spiral down to their inevitable fates.

This doll is used as a device to develop the story and the characters.

Chapter 14

This is the place where Neil and Calum are at their happiest. It is therefore ironic that the most dreadful conclusion of the book will happen at the most beautiful place. The use of contrast brings out the horror of the end of the book. The use of the colloquial “bonny” adds to the friendliness and attractiveness of the location.

For a second time (the first was the Doctor’s appointment) the roots of Duror’s madness are considered. This time Tulloch and LRC explore the roots of Duror’s madness: “Why had Duror taken a spite against Calum?”

The doll is used as the device to bring matters to a climax –it demonstrates that Duror’s madness is reaching its climax and it offers LRC’s the reason she has been looking for to get the cone gatherers out of ‘her’ wood.

is that it’s a combination of these but notice the clear references to disgust at deformity and sexual frustration with a grossly obese and deformed wife.

Chapter 15

Roderick climbs the tree

“It is one of the very big trees at the end of the park; a silver fir” (p.163) Roderick chooses the climb a tree which is symbolic of the huge barrier between classes. He wishes to join the cone gatherers and pick cones – he aligns himself with the “green abundant future” of the new wood, not the barren past or the anguished present. However he also wants the cone gatherers to get back in favour with LRC, he hopes that if they help him she will let them stay.He’s making a statement about the social barrier – he’s going to climb it.

He wants to become a cone gatherer

When in danger only the cone gatherers can rescue him, this he hopes will restore them to favour with his mother

Chapter 16

Comic scenes of Erchie Graham going to ask the cone gatherers for help brings out the tragedy at the end through contrast

Neil refuses to help, he wants LRC to come and ask. “If she wants our help, let her come and ask for it.” “We could have perished in the storm, for all she cared. Was that not murder?”

Graham then encounters Duror. He tells Duror about his failure to get the cone gatherers to help. Unbeknown to him this gives Duror his final motivation for killing Calum – they have caused offence to the lady he has secretly admired from afar.

“Duror was stalking away towards the point.” “It was as if the rotting tree itself had moved.” This final reference to the metaphor of the tree shows the final outcomes of Duror’s corruption – we have moved from rape onto murder and ultimately to his suicide. The word choice “stalking” suggests his deliberate planning, actions and choice.

LRC runs to the point – she is concerned that Duror has a gun (foreshadowed by the gun shot cracking at the start of the novel and the gun lying against the doctor’s bag).

She arrives in time to hear a shot “She saw Duror before she saw them. He was walking away among the pine trees with such infinite desolation in his every step that it was the memory of him rather than of the little hunchback dangling from the tree, or that of his brother climbing so frenziedly into it which was to torment her sleep for months.”

Duror commits suicide: “Somewhere on her beloved promontory Duror, with his face shattered and bloody, lay dead.” In a few moments Duror discovers that killing Calum does not settle him, he remains totally corrupted, and in a moment of self realisation decides to end it all.

After Calum is killed and Duror dies things begin to fix:

Roderick is safely brought down.

LRC finally realises what Calum represented and with his blood dripping down on her “She could not pray, but she could weep; and as she wept pity and purified hope and joy welled up in her heart” Thus Calum’s death brings about a good outcome as evil is replaced with the hope that having been freed from the presence of a great evil (Duror) a new wood (a new society) can be planted and that the old barren ways will be replaced by a new future.

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