Deathwatch

“The heat seemed to have killed every sound. It was as though he were in an enormous bowl of silence; as though from the purple mountains sixty miles east to the brown mountains forty miles west all sound had been silenced by the intense, still heat.” 

In this description of the setting, White uses a simile to illustrate not only the silence of the desert but also the topography of the landscape. He crafts a rich portrait by weaving together the temperature, the silence, and the color and location of the mountains.

“The sound of the gun was absolutely enormous. It was as though it had shattered the ground and cracked the blue vault of the sky and rolled the mountains back. The thing roared and echoed and lunged into the silence and seemed to roll on, mile after mile, never to stop.” 

White again uses simile to create a vivid description. In this example, he also uses synesthesia, or the blending of sensory descriptions. “Enormous” typically refers to something that is seen, but White uses it to describe sound. White further enriches the description of the sound of the gun through personification, endowing it with the ability to lunge and roll.

“As far as [Ben] was concerned, Madec had seen the last bighorn he was going to see, and whatever he had killed up there was going to be all he killed.” 

Ben’s plan to pretend to agree to go along with Madec’s search for a better specimen of bighorn reveals that Ben is not above deception himself. In the same way Madec uses his knowledge of law enforcement and the legal system to outwit Ben, Ben is willing to use his knowledge of bighorn to outwit Madec.

“Who should he get in touch with first, Ben wondered. The sheriff? The Highway Patrol? The justice of the peace? Maybe Madec knew.” 

Ben’s ignorance of the protocol to follow, coupled with his trust of Madec, illustrates his vulnerability to manipulation and his naïve reliance on adults. White describes the starting point of Ben’s character here, but Ben later develops into a less trusting and more independent person.

“What Ben felt was not exactly fear, or even apprehension. It was more physical; a chill gripping his shoulder blades. He realized now what he had known ever since he’d seen the black wound of the Hornet bullet that this was going to happen.” 

White uses negative description to depict Ben’s feelings: It was not fear, and it was not apprehension. By not naming the feeling, White creates a sense of mystery and intuition, suggesting that Ben subconsciously knew what was going to happen.

“Ben felt like a man coming home to find his house burned to the ground.” 

In this simile, White describes Ben’s despair and the heavy impact Madec’s actions have on him. It depicts both the relief Ben was expecting (“a man coming home”) and the complete destruction Madec achieved (“burned to the ground”). This moment marks the beginning of Ben’s loss of innocence. 

“Gradually, just sitting there, he began to feel smaller, helpless, a naked child threatened not only by the desert but by a grown man intent on killing him.” 

This description reveals the complexity of Ben’s situation as it is mirrored in the plot. Not only is Ben involved in a man vs. man conflict, but he is also involved in a man vs. nature conflict. White’s use of childlike imagery in these early chapters reveals Ben’s innocence and helps chart his journey to adulthood. 

“They wandered in and out of his wounds or sat and preened their wings or even bred, flitting in his blood, and there was very little he could do. They had made a home on him.” 

White describes the flies on Ben in a way that illustrates their disregard for Ben’s well-being and eagerness to use him for their own benefit. In doing so, he further depicts the uncaring environment in which Ben is trapped and suggests that Ben will not be receiving any help from the desert in his survival.

“Looking down, he saw the blood dripping from his feet. It was a beautiful color in the early morning light and looked pretty on the stone below.”

By describing Ben’s blood in this way, White juxtaposes Ben’s pain with beauty. This description parallels the violence of Earth’s geological transformations and the beauty of the resulting landscape.

“All of his flesh hurt so that he could not even tell whether the stone grinding the skin off his back was more painful than the skin being ground from his knees and shins and the tops of his feet.”

At this point of the story, Ben’s various pains become indistinguishable as they overwhelm him. By describing “stone grinding the skin off,” White portrays Ben’s injuries in light of the geological process of erosion and again parallels the violence of Earth’s geological transformations.

“All around this puddle bird droppings had caked the floor, and the water itself was not, as it had seemed, sparkling and clear. It was murky and had a stale, almost dusty taste. It was delicious.” 

In this paraprosdokian (a figure of speech in which a sentence or phrase ends in a surprising or unexpected way, often to a humorous or dramatic effect), White interjects humor while underlining Ben’s desperation by the time he finds water. Following “a stale, almost dusty taste” with “It was delicious” is unexpected and comical. It also reveals that Ben’s standards have dropped with his increasing thirst.

“When he looked at himself in the surface of the water his beard was very black and thick and gave him a strange, satanic look; he looked dangerous.” 

Ben’s beard is a thing of nature and keeping with the tone of the novel, it carries an element of danger. In this passage, Ben notes that his appearance has become strange to him, with a widening distance between his physical being and his mental being.

“It was insulting; the thought of being killed here in the desert where he had always lived by this man from the city was insulting and outrageous.” 

This passage reveals the situational irony in which White places Ben. Ben has made his home in the same desert that he is now struggling to survive in, and the man who orchestrated this is a man who is at home in a developed city. Expectations suggest that the man from the city would be the one struggling to survive in the desert.

“He couldn’t control it and, as though it had no connection with him, he heard his breath whistling and gasping in the tube. When he could think at all, it was only that he was lying buried here, totally at Madec’s mercy.” 

This is another passage that describes a disconnection Ben feels between his mind and his body. White’s choice of words, or diction, parallels the panic he is depicting. Ben is “gasping” and “buried” and completely out of control of himself and his situation.

“For the last seven hours Ben had thought how happy he was going to be when he pulled that Jeep up in front of the sheriff’s office. Only then would this thing finally end, only then would he be back among decent people.” 

White uses dramatic irony by portraying Ben’s anticipation of a happy ending when he arrives at the sheriff’s office, despite the foreshadowing that has indicated the story will not end when Ben and Madec leave the desert. White’s use of dramatic irony enhances the suspense of the story and illustrates Ben’s naivety.

“Let me just have a look, Ben, before we do any talking. With all these rules we’ve got to be real careful in things like this.”

Strick’s assertion that he has “got to be real careful” indicates the delicacy of “all these rules” set forth by law enforcement and the legal system. Strick shatters Ben’s dream of simply reporting an accident when he arrives at the sheriff’s office.

“You better say it so those sheriffs can understand or you’ll have to do it all over again” 

When the nurse says this to the doctor before he begins dictating his report of Ben’s wounds, it becomes clear that the doctor must consider the understanding of the sheriffs in completing his report. This adds a layer of complication in obtaining the truth and demonstrates the interconnection between facts and interpretation.

“He knew that he should be outraged by the injustice of all this. He should be angry and doing something about it, but, as he let sleep come rolling in, he felt as he had in the desert; that it was not real, was not happening. Tomorrow everything will get straightened out, he thought. Tomorrow.” 

Just as Ben was shocked when his physical struggle with Madec began, he has a difficult time accepting reality when his rhetorical struggle begins. He again relies on hope to get him through his initial shock.

“Ben felt as though he were talking inside a box or something. That nothing he said was being heard, nothing was being understood.”

White describes Ben’s frustration with a simile that illustrates his voice being trapped from reaching its intended audience. Not being heard or understood leaves Ben unable to overcome Madec in their rhetorical struggle.

“If these people who were once my friends will not believe me, will not even listen to me, Ben thought, what chance have I got when they take me out of this town and we go into a court at the county seat where nobody knows me?” 

Ben comes to accept the reality of his rhetorical struggle when the safety he assumed he had with those familiar with him is shattered. He begins looking forward in the struggle, which is how he developed his plan to escape his physical struggle with Madec.

“Now, for the first time, he felt good, felt as though he were physically breaking out of this trap Madec had made for him.” 

Ben begins to make progress in his rhetorical struggle by poking holes in the version of events Madec has told with facts that the game warden understands. He feels the effectiveness of this strategy and is empowered by his progress.

“I don’t even know what .358 signifies” 

This admission by Dr. Saunders illustrates the difficulty in obtaining truth. While the doctor keeps detailed records of the injuries he treats, his ability to determine the cause of those injuries and the sequence of events that caused the old man’s death is limited by his lack of knowledge regarding ballistics. It is only with Ben’s questioning and supplemental information that the doctor is able to give his objective report.

“Nobody said anything. Nobody even looked at Ben.” 

Ben is again left on his own, even after he is found innocent. The physical trauma he endures in the desert is followed by the social trauma he experiences, and even when he has come out victorious, he is not treated as a hero. Considering the extraordinary strength Ben repeatedly shows to overcome extreme obstacles, this ending is anticlimactic.