Compass and Torch

Compass and Torch

1. Third person narrative

   • Makes you feel at distance from the characters.

2. A boy and his father decide to go on a camping trip to rebuild their bond due to the fact they haven't seen each other in a while since his parents split up. The camping trip does not go to plan when both the boy and the father forget their compasses meaning they will get lost, but they manage to both bring their torches. Which means its even harder to fix the relationship.

3. Beginning and Ending

   • Beginning
     • This story begins immediately with something negative with the gate reference which could be Baines way of telling us the story has already ended like the father son relationship.
   • Ending
     • The story ends with a large amount of horses."Neither hears the horses moving round the tent in the night. For years to come, though, in his dreams the boy will see their wild fringed eyes and feel the deep thudding of their hooves." Although father and son have ignored them, the horses have had a deep effect upon the boy and have penetrated his subconscious "for years to come".
     • By the end of the story we lose all hope for this relationship since forgetting the compassing means they were unable to find the direction for fixing it, but with the torches they saw what exactly was wrong with it.

4. Themes

   • Growing up/ changes
     • The boy is only eight but this is a significant time in his life when things have changed and will probably never be the same again.
   • Divorce/broken families
     • The seperation of the boys parents would have been a hard time for the whole family. But now his mother is with Jim it will be hard for the father and son to rebuild this relationship they used to have because it will end up being a competition with Jim.
   • Man and nature
     • The wildness of the moors dominates the story. The ponies belong on the moors, but the boy and his father seem very weak and insignificant put in the darkness. the moors are notoriously dangerous for people who are unfamiliar with them, as they cannot be tamed.
   • Masculinity
     • The father is trying to do what is sometimes called "male bonding" - sharing an activity that he thinks the boy will enjoy. The boy loves the idea of being a man like his father, but his mother mocks his plan.
   • Father and son
     • The boy just wants their relationship to go back to how it was and so does the father. All the boy wants is lovde and attention from his father, but he is finding it hard to get that.

5. Symbolism

   • Compass
     • Forgetting the compass may suggest several things: - that they are doomed to get lost on this quest - that they have not prepared themselves sufficiently - that they have no sense of direction
     • The fact Baines makes sure both father and son forget their compasses shows us that their relationship is unable to be fixed. Without any sense of direction they wont know how to fix it and they will eventually give up.
   • Torch
     • The torch is a way of showing the reader and the characters what is actually wrong with this father son relationship. Baines is shining the light on the problem areas.
     • Both characters remember their torches showing they both realise what is wrong with the relationship.
   • The gate
     • A gate is a symbol. It is a barrier that you can open to find a path or road. The road ends and the moor begins. It offers the chance to leave civilization behind and discover nature, including your own human nature.
     • The gate could symbolise the direction at which this relationship is going in (end) or it could be showing a crossroads where they were given an opportunity to rebuild this lost relationship
   • Horses and Nature
     • The horses in the story are rather mysterious.
     • "Neither man nor boy take much notice of the horse."
       • The father, in particular, ignores the animal though the boy wonders if it was hungry. This could symbolise the fact the father doesn't pay much attention to the boy throughout the story.
     • "Ten minutes later, when the ponies reach the brow, heading in for the night, there is no sign on the plain of the man and the boy. Too purposeful to loiter, too focused on their goal to stop and gaze at the still black mirror of lake, man and boy have crossed the tract of land and are gone."
       • There is the idea that the father and son are too focused on their own camping business to take notice of the horses, or the lake, or the natural world around them.

6. The title points to the fact that these two objects are very important to the story. There are many references to them and the repetition draws our attention to the fact that they mean much more to the author and reader than just two pieces of outdoor equipment.

7. The purpose of both the compass and the torch is to help people find their way. A torch sheds light in darkness; a compass guides you on a safe path in the right direction. In the story they are symbols as well as real objects. The boy and his father are trying to find a way to relate to one another again.

8. Most of the story is written in the present tense although three short sections are in the past tense; as the boy remembers what happened before he got in the car with his father.

9. Characters

   • Jim
     • Jim is the only character given a name in the story. He is presented as sympathetic and kindly to the boy; he shows a spontaneous and natural interest in the boy and admires his torch.
     • "But Jim is not his dad."
       • He acts as a contrast to his imperfect father who is much more important to the boy than Jim.
     • In spite of Jim's kindness, the boy somewhat resents him. Jim speaks to the father in a friendly and cheerful way but the boy detects that he despises and - worse - feels sorry for his father.
       • "As if as well as despising him, Jim also - horribly - felt sorry for Dad."
   • Mother
     • We only see a small glimpse of the boy's mother. She is presented as an angry and embittered person.
     • "There was a choke in her voice now, and suddenly a kind of snarl: 'You wouldn't expect him to start now, would you - accommodating his child into his life?'"
       • Her anger is spoken to her current partner, Jim, and is directed against her former husband whom she regards mockingly as having made a poor effort to act as a father to his son.
     • She is presented as being a selfish person in her dealings with their son. She cries when he leaves, which spoils his enjoyment of the weekend.
     • The way she treats her husband when she cautions him to be careful with the boy also upsets the child. Baines writes, "Unforgivable - as if she and Jim didn't think that Dad could think of such a thing for himself." The word "unforgivable" is a very strong 'adult' word term that underlines how powerfully her behaviour affects her son.
   • Father
     • The father is not at ease with his son. He puts on an expression of robust cheerfulness but in reality he is anxious about the relationship.
       • "'Great!' cries the man. He isn't looking at the torch. He is looking away, seared by the glitter of anxiety in his little boy's eyes."
     • The father ignores the horses and the natural environment around them. Baines presents him as if he is sealed within a small, artificial world of car and camping equipment.
       • "The man says with robust authority: 'It's an all-weather mountain tent. Two-man.'"
     • At the end of the story he is unable to relate to his son who chatters himself to sleep.
       • "In the plummeting darkness, the man's own anxiety began to mount. He could feel it gathering in the blackening chill: the aching certainty that already, only one year on from the separation, he has lost his son, his child."
   • Boy
     • He is desperate to impress his father but also to be impressed by his father. There is occasionally a sense of fear that he will find his dad to be as pitiful as Jim regards him.
       • "The boy is gratified by his speed but unsettled by his subtle nervy hurry."
     • "The boy puts his concentration into keeping abreast."
       • The boy constantly tries to impress his father, to live up to the manliness of this camping adventure.
     • The torch is a symbol of this manhood. So is the tent - "A tent to weather all conditions. In which he and his father will be two men."
     • The boy’s dreams of the horses' wild eyes and powerful hooves at the end suggest that they, not his father, are the real source of his future inspiration.
   • The horses
     • The horses, although obviously not human, are important 'characters' in the story. The female horse (mare) in particular seems to be annoyed by the humans ignoring her and when she pees it is almost a deliberate insult aimed at them.

10. Key quotes / techniques

    • "The boy is intent. Watching Dad. Watching what Dad is. Drinking it in: the essence of Dadness"
      • He watches with intent because his father is rarely there so it is something different.
      • He loves being around his father and he is fixated on him.
      • The short sentences show how anxiously the boy is watching his father.
    • "the boys chest gives a little hop of joy"
      • This shows us how much the boy idolises his father, and he is imediatly so much happier when he gets in the car with his father, something children would normally find normal.
    • "Right?' says the man decisively and without looking round to check the boy is following, sets off"
      • This shows us that the man has given up looking out for the son since the separation.
    • "It isn't long before the man already expert at blanking out pain, falls asleep too."
      • When the father falls asleep is when we seem to completely lose hope for this relationship between the father and son.
      • The mention of the father being an "expert at blanking out pain" shows us since the separation with the Boys mother he has got used to constantly feeling pain and he has just learnt to deal with it.
    • "Jim dropped his eyes when he's said Hi back, as he understood all there was to understand about Dad, and didn't want to embarrass him by letting him know that. As if as well despising him, Jim also - horribly felt sorry for Dad"
      • This shows us how much the boy pays attention to things, especially when they involve his father and his mums new partner, he recognises all of Jim's feelings towards his father.
    • "that brief but really awful moment when the car slid out of the drive and he felt, after all, he didn't want to go. That was another reason the compass never entered his mind"
      • This is when the boy realises that he doesn't actually feel safe with his own father, the reason he thinks this is because of all the things he has heard his mother saying about his father. When in reality he shouldn't be scared of going camping with his own father.
      • The mention of the compass in this sentance stresses to us that with the Boy not feeling safe with his own father he wont be able to fix their relationship.

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