1. The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins
Chapter One
The Exposition

2. The exposition The exposition of this novel introduces: Characters
Relationships between characters
Sources of conflict and tension
Setting
The narrative voice
Motifs and symbols
Foreshadowing of later events
The writer’s style

3. Calum
Affinity with Nature, at home up in the tree- “ as indigenous as squirrel or bird” “chaffinches fluttered around him”
Seems to represent goodness and innocence- the birds land on him and his face was “alert and beautiful with trust”
So close to Nature that he can imagine himself as an owl – “he became an owl”. But cannot understand why “creatures he loved should kill one another”.
Does not understand war, so he just pushes it from his mind
Sensitive- cannot bear to see animals suffering ( The rabbit in the trap.)- but can’t kill them to put them out of their misery

4. Calum
He is childlike- crying “sobbing” and “whimpering” over the rabbit.
He has a deformity- a hunchback- but a beautiful face. He is “simple”( his mind has not really developed beyond childhood).
He is agile in the trees but clumsy on the ground
Relationship: he trusts Neil absolutely. He loves his brother- helps him down from the tree. Would have stayed up in the tree all night.

5. Neil
Bitter- he hates where they have been forced to live- “in a box fit for monkeys”.
He dislikes the inequalities caused by class “Yonder’s a house with fifty rooms…….nearly all of them empty.” “We’re human beings just like them. We need space to live and breathe in.” Theme of class conflict ( Also page 4- “But it wouldn’t have hurt them….what the grand folk once used.”)
The war seems to weigh heavily on his mind.
He loves his brother but is frustrated by his childishness. ( The rabbit)
To look after his brother he gave up the chance of marriage
He has to worry for both of them-hates the job, but worries about losing it- where would they go/ what would they do?

6. Duror (characteristics and feelings)
Hatred of Calum. Feels revulsion towards him. Imagines killing him (and Neil). He thinks it would not be murder (because to him, they are not human) He compares it to frogs being squashed crossing the road.
He feels the woods- his stronghold and sanctuary- have been polluted by the presence of the two men. (Page 9)
He is strangely drawn to the two men despite his hatred of them and finds himself obsessed by them, spying on them, waiting for them etc. He feels humiliated by this: “He had waited over an hour …..Runcie Campbell.”(p9) It is like he is a third brother.
He has a “ungovernable” aversion to anything with an imperfection- “Since childhood…..lack”
He approves of Hitler’s killing of “idiots” and “cripples” not in general abstract terms, but when he sees Calum.

7. Duror
He feels a “tree of revulsion” growing inside him. At times he feels physically shaken by the hatred and revulsion like a tree in a gale.
He cannot understand why so many healthy intelligent men are killing and being killed, and yet Neil and Calum are allowed to live in peace. “In Europe, in Africa and China………..sub humans lived in peace, as if under God’s protection.”
The “accumulated horror” of the “compulsion” he has against anything deformed is about to be “let loose” due to the arrival of the cone gatherers (Foreshadowing)

8. Sources of conflict and tension
Neil’s bitterness about how he and Calum are being treated (by the “grand” people in the “big house”)why they cannot live in the summer house, but have to live in a tiny hut. (Relates to theme of class conflict/ social inequality)
Duror’s irrational hatred of the cone gatherers ( this is a key factor in the development of the plot and the build up of tension towards the climax.

9. Setting (time and place)
Set during WW2. The war is constantly in the background of the novel. On the first page, a destroyer and aeroplanes are mentioned- even in this secluded place, the war cannot be escaped.
Calum hates to think about the war- cannot bear the idea of people killing each other.(shows his goodness)
Neil refers to the war when telling Calum off for being so soft hearted- the horrors of war are being highlighted.
Duror refers to the Nazi idea of the perfect Aryan being- people like Calum were executed by the Nazis. This creates horror in the mind of the reader, that Duror could even think like this. (Relates to the theme of the battle between good and evil)
The forest is secluded and isolated, allowing tensions to build

10. Narrative voice
Although the novel is written in the third person, the writer does use the technique of “indirect free discourse”, meaning that we “hear” the thoughts of the characters in their inner voice. This is especially obvious with the character of Duror when he is thinking about Calum. “in an icy sweat of hatred, with his gun aimed all the time at the feebleminded hunchback grovelling over the rabbit. To pull the trigger….and then to hear simultaneously the clean report of the gun and the last obscene squeal of the killed dwarf..”

11. Motifs and symbols
The tree of revulsion and hatred growing inside Duror is a major motif which appears throughout the novel ( to represent his growing insanity). The imagery is especially appropriate because of the setting in the forest; because Duror used to find “sanctuary” in the trees, and because he himself is later described as a strong tree which has somehow gone rotten.