The Road Rat

'A single round left in the revolver. You will not face the truth. You will not.' Who is the man echoing here? How do you believe these words are uttered?

These words echo the man's last conversation with his wife where she tells him 'I should have done it a long time ago. When there were three bullets in the gun instead of two... You have two bullets and then what? You cant protect us.' and 'I'm speaking the truth.' which tell us the effect that the woman has on the man; how she lingers in his subconscious despite his endless attempts to rid himself of her. I imagine that these words are uttered with a numb, disconnected tone and expression to reflect the man's shock and despair of the harsh truth that there is only one bullet left, so they must die later, slower. This shows the man trying to repress these feelings of despair and the morbid thoughts of the death that's awaiting them, resulting in this numb and disconnected expression as he refuses to face the truth. The fact that the man echoes the woman's voice here represents that the man feels the closeness and reality of death more now than ever -where he refuses to accept that they will die in other circumstances in the novel e.g. 'Are we going to die now? No.' pg. 92- as the woman is symbolic of death and memories of her only arise when the man feels death is near.