SETTINGS
WAR
At the start of the novel we are told about one destroyer sailing down the loch.
“A destroyer had steamed seawards”
Even though we are introduced to war at the beginning of the book there is a limited reference to it in the book.
Calum and Neil are in the forest because the forests are going to be chopped down so the cones are needed to keep the forests alive in generations to come.
Book set in 2nd World War. WWII is a sense of having to fight something evil (Nazis trying to take over the world.) In the novel this evil is Duror.
We are always aware of the war as a background to the story.
The forest is a contrast to the war “Garden of Eden”
Because of war there is rationing and so everybody has to have the same amount of food. There is less of a difference in class.
After the war all of the classes had to become equal. There was no more differentiation between classes.
“The lower orders are going to be frightfully presumptuous.”
Because of the war LRC has to let the cone gatherers into the wood. It is made out as if she has accepted them but the reality is that if she had said no she would have been forced to take them. If war wasn’t on she wouldn’t have accepted them.
Archie Graham makes an interesting mention of the war. It is really about Durors own personal war.
“There are men getting medals for less than what we’re going to face.”
Because of one war there are men in the trenches fighting. All classes have to stay in the same trenches.
The Doctor is so preoccupied with getting food and wine due to the rationing that he doesn’t say anything about even though he knows that he is mentally ill.. The doctor is too greedy.
In the 2nd World War Calum would have been killed by the Nazis because he was different. They wanted a perfect society.
“So that ordinary humble people could line in peace without being
bullied and enslaved by brutal men with power,”
Because it is a time of rationing people wanted as much food as possible yet when Neil and Calum visit Lendrick they get more than anyone else but there is no hard feelings. This shows how Neil & Calum are nice, liked people.
Conscientious objectors were not liked during WW II because they refused to fight. Yet Neil sees them as people and respects their opinion.
When Mr Tulloch decides to take Neil & Calum off the forest he tells LRC that it will be 2 conscientious objectors that she will get. Although she obviously hates them she has no choice but to accept them if she wants Neil & Calum off the forest estate. Mr Tulloch had conscientious objectors on their land. At first his wife and workers didn’t like them but then they grew to like them and understood them. This is what LRC fails to do.
Some of the arguments that LRC comes out with are similar to those of the Nazis.
After Calums death we are brought full circle to the war again by
“a warship steamed down the loch”
RODERICK
We meet Roderick in Chapter 3.
Roderick is the hope for the future in the novel.
He is a sickly child who is fascinated by the world around him.
Roderick is weak in body – complicated in mind.
He dislikes Duror and recognises something bad in him.
He has greater vision than his mother. She is too busy trying to follow the rules of social class.
Roderick has a sense of what’s right or wrong at the deer drive.
Roderick pressurises his mum to give the cone gatherers as lift when it is raining. He wants to apologise to him. If you apologise to them you see them as equals so Roderick sees Calum and Neil as equals.
When the cone gatherers are in Lendrick they meet LRC and Roderick etc. Roderick speaks to them. This is important because he is treating them like people.
Roderick has good in him like LRC’s father.
Even though Roderick is aware of right or wrong at no point does he indicate that he will give up his power.
Effie warns Roderick off the cone gatherers
Roderick wants to go and see the cone gatherers so he takes a cake as an act of kindness.
Roderick sees going to see the cone gatherers as a pilgrimage.
There is a contrast between Roderick and the cone gatherers. Duror wants to destroy the cone gatherers and so destroy himself but Roderick wants to save himself.
When Roderick gets to the cone gatherers hut Duror is there. Roderick like Calum is unwilling to go past Duror – he is scared of Duror.
Roderick recognises that Duror is evil/deranged.
He recognises the struggle between good and evil that is always going on. He also recognises that good does not always win.
Roderick doesn’t make friends with Calum & Neil because Duror was there. He dumps the cake and leaves with a sense of defeat because he is not willing to go further even though he has the power to. There is nothing stopping him doing what he chooses to do.
Roderick is not willing to make a sacrifice at this point because he is scared. He is not willing to make the step yet. Jenkins is reminding us of how easy it is not to do enough.
Roderick recognises that LRC is wrong to throw Calum and Neil out of the beach hut.
Roderick is upset by his mother’s attitude to the cone gatherers.
Roderick looks for Calum and Neil because he wants to apologise. He wants to be absolved of his sins – religious references.
Roderick shows an interest in the cones etc. and in doing so we are shown that he has an interest in the cone gatherers.
The author brings up the subject that Roderick doesn’t like climbing trees. There is an irony in this in the fact that at the end of the book he is up a tree.
Roderick gets stuck up a tree. We discover that he has been trying to be like the cone gatherers by picking cones. The only way that Roderick can be saved is by Calum saving him.
This is an irony.
“waved to them, and shouted in a friendly voice.”
DUROR
Duror represents the evil in the novel.
Duror does things that are evil but he is not actually evil. He manipulates Lady Runcie Campbell into treating the cone gatherers like dirt.
He makes sure that Calum and Neil have to take part in the deer hunt even though he knows that Calum won’t be able to handle it.
He suggests that Calum exposes himself and in the end he kills Calum.
Duror is obsessive and he Calum.
He gets his hatred from the fact that he was once married to a young, pretty woman but after a couple of years of marriage she becomes paralysed and bed ridden. Because of this she gets fatter and fatter. He loathes his wife because he feels he has an obligation to stay with her because she is dependent on him and useless without him. Duror doesn’t want Peggy’s love – there is nothing physical. In a way he has lost his manhood – never had a proper life.
He flirts outrageously with Effie, the cook, but he will never leave his wife.
He has a loathing for himself. His dogs love him and show him affection yet he treats them like dirt. He rejects anything that shows him affection because it reminds him of his wife.
Duror is a twisted character who needs something to venge his anger on – he takes it out of Calum.
Duror has no good thoughts for himself. By destroying Calum he is destroying Peggy and destroying himself.
Everybody knows that there is something wrong with Duror but no one does anything.
Duror dislikes the brothers because they are allowed to live in the woods, which is his domain.
He considers himself to be above the brothers.
Duror has a dislike of anything abnormal or disformed. This is a reflection of his feelings towards his wife.
The doctor is in a position to recognise that there is something wrong with Duror but he is too greedy and doesn’t say anything.
The doctor is used to show what has corrupted Duror.
Duror is gradually being destroyed.
Duror becomes “God” in his urge to destroy what he doesn’t like. Duror is an atheist to a certain extent. He has an odd concept of what God is. God begins to fit in with what he wants him to be like.
At the beginning of the novel (Ch. 2) Duror just wants Neil and Calum out of the forest he doesn’t want to kill them.
From the end of Ch. 2 onwards we know that Duror is bent on self-destruction – even if Calum and Neil leave the forest
Duror sees Calum more as an animal than a person.
Duror perceives that if he has an affair with Mrs Martin it would destroy her. From Ch 3 on he is willing to destroy himself.
His desire to destroy the cone gatherers is his last grab at the world. He sees the world as having treated him badly. Wants to destroy the part of the world he can.
Although he hates the cone gatherers he doesn’t know much about them.
Mrs Martin suggests there is nothing wrong with them but he suggests that Calum is indecently assaulting young girls.
There is a generalisation that simple people rape/indecently assault people. A lie that Duror saw causes as much distortion as the truth.
Duror is obsessed with sex because he doesn’t get any.
Mrs Martin is aware that Duror is destroying himself yet she is prepared to lie for him.
Duror manipulates LRC into seeing Neil and Calum as bad people.
Duror is frightened to climb up the tree. Because cone gatherers are further up it implies that they are better than Duror even though he is superior.
Duror is conveying his wish to kill Peggy.
All the workers become aware that there is something wrong with Duror but they do nothing about it.
Duror in the blood at the deer drive.
When Duror is killing the deer he is really killing Peggy.
Duror is described as being similar to a lunatic e.g. “laughing”. Duror behaves in a manner which panders to all the prejudices that we have with regard to the behaviour of lunatics. Jenkins has done this on purpose to make us see Duror as insane rather than simply evil. Duror needs help, not just condemnation.
Erchie Graham recognises there is something wild about Duror – he sees that Duror has become a beast.
Duror has biblical reference of Lucifer. He thinks he is better than everyone else like Lucifer and he is in a position where LRC(God) backs him up.
Duror hates that Calums face is beautiful. He hates Calums inner beauty. This implies that Peggy is not as ugly as Duror perceives her to be.
Impending killing of Calum is like a crucifixion. In destroying Calum he wants to destroy his sins and seek forgiveness.
The doctor is aware that Duror is mentally ill.
Ch. 9 – Duror is drunk and wants to hurt someone because of this – Duror also suicidal
Duror sees no future for himself and so has no reason not to destroy himself.
Duror is rejected out of the pub.
Lady Runcie Campbell becomes aware that there is something wrong with Duror after she visits Peggy.
Duror is the danger in the wood.
Duror represents more than unwillingness to go past – he represents the blockage we have when we don’t have courage to face our convictions.
Even though Duror is ill the only explanation LRC can come up with for this is that he is an unhappy man.
If Neil helped LRC, Calum may not have been killed.
When Erchie Graham says that Duror is on his way to Neil and Calum with a gun she knows what is about to happen.
Duror kills himself after killing Calum. He has destroyed his madness and himself.
THE CONE GATHERERS
The story starts by telling us that the story is set in wartime – the destroyer sailing down the loch.
Page 1. “ A destroyer had steamed seawards, with a sailor singing cheerfully. More sudden and swifter than hawks, and roaring louder than waterfalls, aeroplanes had shot down from the sky over the wood, whose autumn colours they seemed to have copies for camouflage. In the silence that had followed gunshots had cracked far off in the wood.” Ch 1.
Even though we are introduced to war at the beginning of the book there is a limited reference to it in the book.
The setting is very important. This tells us that Calum and Neil have to be gathering cones in the first place because the forests are going to be cut down. The cones are needed to rebuild forests.
It is the 2nd World War that the book is set in. The book was published in 1955 so it was written in the 50/s. Both the wars are over. The 1st World War was about empire building but the 2nd World War was about an evil empire (Nazis) trying to take over the world.
By setting the novel during the 2nd World War we have a sense of having to fight something that is evil:- Duror represents that evil.
The novel takes place in a small setting but throughout the novel we are aware of the conflict between good and evil. We are aware of the bigger sense of the setting – world – the war.
On the first page we become more and more focused on the wood. The only colour is in the wood – everywhere else is grey.
3 Main Characters
Neil, Calum, Duror
2 other characters without whom the novel wouldn’t take place
Lady Runcie Campbell, Roderick
The other characters have an effect on the understanding of the novel.
It is often argued that Calum represents a Christ figure. It is not that straight forward. We can see Calum as a Christ figure because he is innocent, he is at one with nature. He is “crucified” for what he is. Calum is used to show us that we don’t always look at things in the right way. He is used to show Durors anger.
It could also be argued that the story is not about Calum and Neil but is about Duror because he is central to everything that happens in the story.
Is Duror evil?
Duror does things that are evil. He manipulates Lady Runcie Campbell into treating the core gathers like dirt. He makes sure that Calum and Neil have to take part in the Deer hunt even though he knows that Calum won’t be able to handle it.