The Cone-Gatherers (from the BBC Learning webpages)



The Cone-Gatherers (from the BBC Learning webpages)

Calum

Calum is one of the cone gatherers, along with his brother Neil. He is 31 years old, with physical and mental disabilities, and is an innocent victim who represents goodness in the world. Apart from his angelic face, his physical appearance is disfigured. According to some of the minor characters he looks like a monkey, as he shuffles along with his hands close to the ground and his back is hunched.

Duror is not the only one disgusted by Calum's appearance as Betty, the land girl, says he, fair gies me creeps and Harry remarks he once saw a picture of an ape that reminded him of Calum. There is an awkward moment in the bar in Lendrick, when a story about a fighter pilot who had a pet ape causes embarrassment because a number of people in the pub associate the ape with Calum.

Unlike Neil, Calum is perfectly at home climbing trees in the woods and gathering cones. On the ground Calum is less comfortable and moves awkwardly.

Calum identifies strongly with nature, in particular with the birds and animals of the woods. He helps them to escape from the traps set by Duror and suffers along with the deer during the hunt. He is instinctively sensitive, rather than having any notions of unfairness in the world.

In fact, he appears to be continually happy and has an absolute goodness, along with a lack of bitterness concerning his physical appearance, which Duror cannot come to terms with and therefore cannot tolerate.

Calum's innocence is demonstrated by his behaviour when he is persuaded to go into the beach hut during the storm. He calms down when he sees the drawings left by the children, Sheila and Roderick, along with a broken doll, another victim, which he takes away to fix.

Prior to this he is like a poor whimpering child afraid of the thunder and lightning, relating the elements of the weather to heaven from where he believes his mother is, watching over him.

At the end of the novel Calum is shot dead and is discovered hanging from a tree by Lady Runcie-Campbell. Calum is an innocent victim who loses his life at the hands of the mentally ill Duror.

Neil

Neil is disinterested in nature and is forward thinking. He is very aware of the wider world and believes the war will bring about equality and positive changes for ordinary working class individuals like himself.

He is resentful towards aristocrats such as Lady Runcie-Campbell and believes she prefers her animals to her lowly workers. This is largely because the accommodation she has provided for him and Calum is appalling, especially when compared to her luxurious home. However, Neil is unaware that it was Duror who prevented Lady Runcie-Campbell from offering them the beach hut. Despite his beliefs, Neil does not treat the conscientious objectors with equality and does not defend them.

Unlike Calum, Neil does not believe in God - if God existed the world would be a kinder place and Calum's mother would not have committed suicide after having him. Neil has no concern for nature either as he prefers to focus on the survival of mankind, as well as on his and Calum's future welfare.

Neil sacrifices any aspirations to live a normal married life and to join the army to fight for his country, in order to care for the brother he loves but sometimes resents.

When Calum is shot, Neil desperately tries to reach his dead body. Neil's own future and state of mind look dismal given his failure to protect Calum.

Duror

Duror is the estate's gamekeeper and forester who lives with his bedridden obese wife, Peggy. Mrs Lochie, Peggy's mother, also stays in the house to look after her daughter, but cannot stand Duror, constantly accusing him of neglecting his wife and her needs. Duror's domestic situation is miserable.

Having tried to join the army and been rejected because of his age, Duror exists in an unhappy state, with the woods providing his only place of respite - that is, until the cone gatherers arrive. Duror hates the two brothers, especially Calum because he frees animals from the traps Duror has set, and looks after them. While others accept Calum's disabilities, Duror despises him to the extent that he condones the actions of the Nazis in sending 'imperfect' people to their deaths. Duror lies about Calum, implying he is a sexual pervert, and sets him up to appear incompetent during the deer drive.

Bound up in his hatred of Calum is his wife's physical disability, which conjures up images of Calum's own disfigured appearance. Peggy’s ‘wheedling voice’ also reminds Duror of Calum's voice, much to his horror. From an early age, Duror admits he: ...had been repelled by anything living that had an imperfection or deformity or lack: a cat with three legs had roused pity in others, but in him an ungovernable disgust.

Unfortunately, in his warped mind, he truly believes that if he could find a way to get rid of the cone gatherers this might lead to his own liberation. When we realise how disturbed Duror’s mind is, and look at his bleak existence, he can be pitied and seems less of a monster.

However, he reverts to being a figure of evil when he destroys all goodness in the woods by shooting Calum, whose death has echoes of the crucifixion of Christ, in that he is an innocent who dies to cleanse the world. From being a figure of twisted bitterness, Duror becomes like Judas, who betrayed Christ then also committed suicide.

Lady Runcie-Campbell

She is presented as a Christian who has a conscience but this is often disregarded because she believes her aristocratic position makes her opinions and actions superior to the ordinary workers she is surrounded by.

Her father was a judge who believed in a sense of fairness, although he was not a Christian. Her husband, Colin, is away fighting in the war, but he also believes the social ranking order on earth is echoed in the after-life in heaven. Aside from these influences, she unfortunately also seeks the hate-filled Duror's advice concerning the cone gatherers.

If she had known how squalid the accommodation provided for the brothers was, she would have ignored Duror and allowed them to stay in the beach hut, which would have led to less resentment on Neil's part. She only involves the brothers in the deer hunt, again, because she listens to Duror, but she also finds Calum's sensitive behaviour incomprehensible.

Despite allying herself with Duror in agreeing that the brothers should be removed after the disastrous deer hunt, she lets them stay as a result of Tulloch's intervention and her son, Roderick's sympathetic stance. Still, her Christianity does not extend to giving the brothers a lift when she passes them in the car on the way back from Lendrick.

She visits Duror's bedridden and obese wife out of Christian duty, but cannot suffer Peggy's fawning sycophantic behaviour for long.

Lady Runcie-Campbell's Christian goodwill does not stretch to allowing the brothers to shelter in the beach hut, where she finds them during the storm. In a rage, she orders them out into the bad weather, absolving herself with her belief that they are used to such rain, and that her son must remain to be protected from pneumonia.

She believes the brothers have behaved inappropriately and agrees with her husband's view that it is unacceptable for the lower classes to believe they can have similar rights to the upper classes because of the war.

However, at the end of the novel when Roderick cannot get down from a tree he has climbed to try and emulate the cone gatherers he so admires, it is these brothers whom Lady Runcie Campbell turns to for help. Neil refuses, unless she makes the request herself. Duror finds out about this ultimatum and he loses all control and shoots Calum, who is perched up a tree where he is happiest.

Lady Runcie Campbell is the one who finds Calum; she kneels in the dripping blood and fallen cones and weeps with true emotion. One theory is that she has learnt a Christian lesson about being more tolerant of others. Another theory is that she sees Calum not simply as a human being but as a Christ-like symbol, which might explain her tears of joy and hope for humanity at the end of the novel.

Roderick

Roderick is the 14-year-old son of Lord and Lady Runcie-Campbell. He appears to be rather non-conformist, as he does not agree with his parents' aristocratic beliefs that their status makes them superior in moral terms. Rather, Roderick holds the idea that people should all be treated fairly, perhaps a notion inherited from his grandfather. He represents the quest for moral goodness in mankind.

Physically he is clumsy, poor at sports and is considered a weakling, having to be home tutored for his own good. His grandfather has had a strong influence on his sense of justice in the world and he shows this in his support for Calum when he reminds his mother that Calum had not wanted to take part in the deer hunt.

He shows his displeasure at his mother's behaviour in the beach hut by remaining silent, and he wants her to give the brothers a lift. His grandfather had encouraged Roderick to be sensitive to others who were considered inferior.

Roderick dislikes and fears Duror immensely, having witnessed him killing a roe deer and seen him spying on the brothers in the woods when he was bringing a cake to them.

He climbs the tree at the end of the novel to emulate the cone gatherers and show his admiration for them, but also to escape events on the ground where he is perhaps confused by the unfairness. It is significant that he ignores his mother when she shouts to him.

Minor characters

Sheila Runcie-Campbell

She is the 12-year-old younger sister of Roderick and a representation of all that is bad about the aristocracy. She is the hard face of the upper classes: spoilt, mocking and lacking in any compassion.

Captain Forgan

Captain Forgan is Lady Runcie-Campbell's brother and Sheila and Roderick's uncle. He is another upper-class character - he is home on leave and playing cricket with Roderick when he requests the deer hunt. However, when asked for his views on the deer hunt fiasco he calls Calum a ‘poor-fellow’ and appears unperturbed. He is 35 and during peacetime is a lawyer. He advises his sister while her husband is away fighting the war, and has perhaps inherited their father’s sense of justice from being a judge and a lawyer himself.

Mr Tulloch

He is the forester at Ardmore and is responsible for the brothers’ employment as cone gatherers on the estate. He is a champion of the brothers and understands the deer hunt disaster was not Calum’s fault, advising Lady Runcie-Campbell to deal fairly with them. He is perhaps more compassionate because he lost his own brother at Dunkirk and understands the brothers’ close protective relationship.

Mrs Morton

She is the housekeeper at the Big House and is a sensible buxom widow who finds Duror ‘distinguished’. She allows Duror to flirt with her and speak coarsely to her, while at the same time she visits his bedridden wife Peggy. She doesn’t entertain Duror’s attempts to spread false rumours about Calum being a pervert, instead sensibly advising Duror to stop being so twisted and hate-filled.

Peggy Duror

She is Duror’s obese, bedridden, sick wife who was once a beautiful woman and ran romantically through the fields with her husband. According to her mother, Mrs Lochie, only three years ago she was once very happy and made others happy too. Now she is full of regret for what once was and lives a miserable existence with a husband who feels trapped by his domestic situation and who clearly does not love her.

Mrs Lochie

She is Duror’s mother-in-law who looks after her daughter Peggy in Duror’s absence. She is full of anger at God because of her daughter’s situation and choice of husband, and she turns this anger onto Duror, accusing him of being more caring of his dogs than his sick wife. Just as Neil wonders what would happen to Calum if he didn’t look after him, Mrs Lochie worries whether Duror would look after Peggy in her absence. She also seems to lead a miserable life, knitting, listening to the radio and moaning about and at her son-in-law. She even tries to get him into trouble by telling Lady Runcie-Campbell she saw him with a naked doll. Mrs Lochie contributes to making Duror’s bleak domestic situation all the more unbearable and unpleasant.

Dr Matheson

He represents greed in wartime Britain. He appears to be only selfishly concerned with the minor inconveniences the war has brought, moaning about his diet of spam before showing great delight when Duror presents him with a gift of venison for helping his wife, Peggy. Despite his own flaws, the doctor is quick to realise that Duror may be suppressing his true nature and could be suffering mentally because of his wife’s degenerative state. Dr Matheson merely advises Duror to endure, which he is doing or appears to be doing already, without any other help besides Mrs Lochie who seems to make Duror’s mental state even worse.

Dialect and tone

Throughout the novel, the characters use language in a way which reflects their social class and status in Britain during World War Two. The language used also signals their attitude towards others of differing social standing.

Lady Runcie-Campbell, representative of the aristocracy in the text, speaks using standard English. On numerous occasions, when she wants something done, she uses an authoritative, imperative tone, despite being on first name terms with the workers: Go there as fast as you can, and fetch the men from Ardmore. Quickly, Graham.

Her manner of speaking and addressing the lower classes highlights the wide gap between the upper classes and the working classes of that era, although this was in the process of changing because of the effects of the war.

In return, Lady Runcie-Campbell’s staff always address her politely and respectfully, using the term my lady. When Lady Runcie-Campbell asks whether Calum is a kind of cripple and therefore of little use on the deer drive, Duror retorts: I wouldn’t call him that, my lady. He’s a hunchback, but he’s as agile as any monkey.

Duror doesn’t hesitate to cruelly describe and discredit Calum, but in a polite fashion.

The language of the lower class characters like Duror is quite abrupt, as many servants were expected to speak in a particular manner, which meant their words were brief and choice of language limited.

Many workers used the Scots dialect which is most clearly shown in the conversation between Betty, the Glaswegian land girl, and Harry, the apprentice gardener, as they assemble with the other workers in anticipation of the deer drive. As Calum arrives Betty remarks: God forgie me…but he fair gies me the creeps.

After the deer has had its throat slit by the mentally unstable Duror, Tulloch describes Duror's appearance as: …slack-mouthed, mumbling, rather glaikit.

The word ‘glaikit’, meaning foolish or silly looking, is very much of the Scottish vernacular and would be commonly used by the working class as a derogatory description of someone in a dazed state.

Scottish terms

All of these are Scottish words used in the book and their meanings:

• thrawn – stubborn, obstinate

• bothy - hut

• The Rowan Tree – a Scottish song

• wean – child

• beaters - workers employed to drive game birds up into the air so they can be shot

• tocher – dowry or payment

• glaikit – foolish

• huff – a fit of anger or sulking

• oxter – armpit

• grue – shudder

• byke – nest

• tholing – enduring

• saps – a warming cheap food mixture made up of bread and tea or warm milk

• mak siccar – make sure

• a staunch Kirk hand – a person who always attends church

• scunners – sickens

• godmongers – dealers in religion

• forby – as well as that

• drooking – drenching.

Characters in The Cone Gatherers - video summary

Watch this video for a summary on the central characters in The Cone Gatherers



Plot

The novel takes place on a Scottish Highland estate during World War Two, over the course of five days. It centres on the story of two brothers, Neil and Calum, who have been employed to help the war effort by gathering cones, so that the trees can be replanted after the war. Duror, the estate's middle-aged gamekeeper who is mentally unstable, takes an instant dislike to the brothers and does all he can to make their lives more miserable as well as trying to get rid of them for ‘defiling’ his territory.

Duror spreads malicious rumours in an attempt to discredit Calum and involves the kind-hearted animal lover in a bloodthirsty deer hunt to deliberately torture him. Duror's wife Peggy is morbidly obese. He feels trapped within his marriage and is full of feelings of disgust for his ‘imperfect’ spouse. Duror channels his hatred of what he considers to be flawed beings, and all that is wrong with his world, into seeking vengeance on the two cone gatherers, the angelic Calum in particular.

Duror fails dismally in his plans concerning the deer drive in which he had put the brothers forward as volunteers to assist, knowing full well Calum would be distressed by the hunt. Duror's suppressed malice violently surfaces in the end when he shoots Calum down from a tree before turning the gun on himself and ridding the world of his evil presence.

Duror’s suicide echoes that of Adolf Hitler, the Führer of Nazi Germany, who wanted to destroy anyone he considered to be ‘flawed’ in any way.

Timescale of the novel

Keeping in mind the timescale of the novel's chain of events as the plot unravels helps us to understand the intensity of the action:

• Chapters 1-2 Thursday evening

• Chapters 3-6 Friday evening

• Chapters 7-9 Saturday

• Chapters 10-11 Sunday

• Chapters 12-16 Monday

The Cone Gatherers centres on the story of two brothers, Neil and Calum, who have been employed to gather cones to assist with the war effort so that the depleting wood supplies can be regenerated. There are three key incidents in the novel: the deer hunt, the storm scene and Roderick being stuck up the tree. Each event provides insight into the characters and themes prevalent throughout the novel. Lady Runcie-Campbell is involved in each of the three events in which Duror's evil intentions are somehow brought to the fore.

The deer hunt

The deer hunt is used as part of Duror's plan to show how incompetent Calum and his brother Neil are, so that they can both be sacked and driven out of Duror's woods. Calum does mess up by throwing himself in front of the wounded deer to save it from further pain, much to Lady Runcie-Campbell's fury. Calum is only saved here by Roderick who appeals to his mother, along with Tulloch, causing Duror's plot to fail.

The storm

The storm scene is significant as the brothers are brought face-to-face with Lady Runcie-Campbell when, during a terrible storm, they are forced to seek shelter in the forbidden sanctuary of a hut belonging to her. Upon discovering the brothers sheltering there, Lady Runcie-Campbell demands that they leave but is prompted by Roderick's silent response to wonder whether she has been unfair.

Final tragedy

Roderick's entrapment in a tree is one of the results of this incident, as he so admires the brothers that he climbs one of the tallest trees and then can't get down. With not one of the servants able to help, Lady Runcie-Campbell is forced to send a servant to ask the capable brothers for help, but when Neil refuses and demands she ask in person, Lady Runcie-Campbell is forced to concede to save her son. When Duror learns about this ultimatum he takes matters into his own hands and shoots Calum who is perched up a tree, gathering cones, before turning the gun on himself. Lady Runcie-Campbell is left to question the morals of her actions.

Narrative structure

The novel is written in the third person narrative by an omniscient narrator, allowing the reader insight into the innermost thoughts and feelings of each of the characters.

This novel has also been compared to a fable and, although fables usually feature talking animals, the Cone Gatherers does have a moral tale. Calum’s affinity with animals and the woodland setting makes us focus on the key characters. Duror is portrayed as a monster that preys on the helpless Calum, initially trying to trap him with the deer hunt, just as he trapped the rabbits. Initially unsuccessful, he does succeed in the end.

The simplicity of the setting and structure, together with the atmosphere, make this novel appear to be like a fable. Underlying this is a tale of the animalistic instinct within human beings, best represented in the contrasting characters of Duror and the innocent Calum, who dies in the end to provide hope for mankind.



Setting

The Cone Gatherers is set during World War Two on a Scottish Highland estate. All of the most significant action occurs in the wood.

The setting underpins the structure of the novel as nearly all of the most significant action occurs in the wood.

The novel appears to be a tragedy in the classical Greek sense given its fixed setting and short timescale. Set against the world wide violence of World War Two, there is a sense that there is no hope for mankind who is full of cruelty and hatred, highlighted by the suppressed violence within the wood and beyond in the wider world. Calum dispels this theory by representing goodness and showing us that there is another way.

Despite his death, the ending offers hope, as like the figure of Christ, Calum's blood will regenerate with the replanted cones. Like Christ, Calum died as an innocent in order to rid the world of evil, in this case in the form of Duror.

Places

The wood

At the beginning of the novel the wood is seen by Duror as his sanctuary from the stresses of his daily life and lowly position.

In Duror's eyes the woods have been defiled by the two brothers, especially Calum. Therefore, to satisfy Duror, the wood needs to be cleansed of evil.

The woods could also be used to demonstrate what was happening in Scottish Highland society at the time. From the point of view of some of the characters, things are slowly changing for the worse. The large estates are no longer places where everyone knows their position in the social order and how to interact with one another.

The storm

There is both literal and symbolic significance to the storm, given Calum's 'vision' and the testing of Lady Runcie-Campbell’s morals and character that follows when she throws the lower-class brothers out of the beach hut.

The storm is foreshadowing not only the coming storm of the war as it becomes more violent, but the storm that will rip apart the fabric and social borders of the local society, hopefully creating a better world from the ruins of the old one.

The cone gatherers' hut

The hut is not fit for human habitation, yet it is where the two brothers have to try and live until they complete their task. This setting serves to emphasise the way Calum especially is thought of as an animal and treated like one.

Duror's hut

This is the backdrop of the problems in Duror’s life, which cause him great stress and ultimately push him over the edge into madness.

The mansion

Many of the locations emphasise the differences between the classes by showing physical aspects such as the furniture or number of rooms. In effect they give each character a place in society which they occupy and, at the time in which the novel is set, cannot aspire to improve. They all 'know their place' in society and live in their own style accordingly. The Runcie-Campbells have a big house where they never use most of the rooms. Their staff occupy either one small room or a hut lacking the basic sanitation and other facilities that the Runcie-Campbells take for granted.

Lendrick

Lendrick is the local village. While friendly to those who live there, it is distrustful of outsiders. Again setting is important here - the village appears to be behind the times and presents obstacles that its inhabitants need to overcome simply to live there.

Themes

There are several themes running throughout the Cone Gatherers and many overlap. Some of these include: good versus evil, nature, class structure, religion, and war.

There are several themes running through the novel and many overlap, but the most obvious are the following:

Good versus evil

Lady Runcie-Campbell’s conflict between trying to appear Christian and upholding her aristocratic ideals recurs throughout the novel. The theme is also examined through Calum’s childlike innocence contrasting with Duror’s ‘snakes of damnation’ evil mentality and cruel actions.

Nature

Calum is extremely close to nature but does not feel close to the human world. He is at home in the natural world: …it was a good tree…with rests among its topmost branches as comfortable as chairs. Duror is jealous of Calum’s affinity with nature.

Class structure

Lady Runcie-Campbell believes she is superior to the lower classes. Duror enjoys the small luxuries he is given because of his higher-status job as a gamekeeper, but Neil hates the class structure: We’re human beings just like them. This carries through to the end.

Religion

Religious symbolism is suggested in the death of Calum, whose innocence and sacrifice can be compared to Christ’s.

Neil also makes sacrifices for his younger brother Calum. This is evident throughout the novel. He gives up any chance of romance and settling down to have a family in order to look after his disabled brother.

The human sacrifice of those who are losing their lives in the war is reiterated to highlight the cost of liberation.

The war

The theme of war is recurrent throughout and is highlighted through the impact it has made on the estate and on every character and their actions. The background of World War Two suggests that evil is to be found in humans everywhere, showing it is not simply confined to the woods on the estate.

The war means that Lady Runcie-Campbell is left to run the estate, with Duror's poor advice. Her husband, had he not been away at war, would perhaps have made more sensible decisions. The war allows Neil to believe in a future where there is social justice and equality.

Duror seems to support the Nazis’ regime, the Germans were putting idiots and cripples to death in gas chambers. Having been rejected from the army, Duror is still part of the Home Guard, so despite appearing to ‘fight’ against Hitler, he shares some Nazi ideals.

Other themes

Jealousy and hatred

Neil’s hatred for Lady Runcie-Campbell, because of her aristocratic status and treatment of the brothers, becomes apparent until the climactic ending when Neil’s refusal to help her costs his brother’s life.

Lady Runcie-Campbell’s hatred for the cone gatherers is portrayed through her constant wrestling with her Christian conscience before deciding to assist them only when others intervene on their behalf.

Duror’s hatred for the cone gatherers, in particular Calum and anything he finds ‘misshapen’, including his wife Peggy, is a significant recurring theme which leads to the inevitable climax of the novel.

Isolation

Duror, Calum and Neil are similar in that they are isolated characters, struggling to make sense of the world and their situation. No one really understands the brothers or Duror, and they have no one to turn to for help. This is particularly true of Duror, whose home life is perhaps the most wretched of all the characters.

The nature of goodness

Calum is disfigured but Jenkins wants us to see beyond his physical appearance to the human being within.

Nature and animals

Man’s relationship with nature is explored in the novel through the characters’ attitudes towards nature and the treatment of animals. Calum is constantly compared to an ape and is in fact most comfortable climbing and sitting in trees, but is clumsy and incapable on the ground, suggesting a kind of reversal of the process of evolution.

However, despite his love of nature and the way he is inclined to suffer when other animals such as the rabbits and deer suffer, Calum could not survive in the wild, without his brother Neil. Neil finds nature hostile and believes it is wrong to love animals, like the dogs Lady Runcie-Campbell appears to love, more than humans. Neil also worries that he could be harmed by an animal such as a snake, which could prevent him from looking after his brother.

Duror is quite jealous of Calum being so perfectly content in the woods when he himself, a gamekeeper, is not in harmony with nature. Duror sets rabbit traps and gets angry with Calum for setting the rabbits free. Duror also views deer as vermin and is further enraged by Calum when he flees like the deer during the hunt and then tries to protect it. Duror is so needlessly cruel that even his own dogs are afraid of him.

Even the trees are victims of war and the cones represent the resurrection of the woods once the war is over. Beyond the woods, the war and the Holocaust demonstrate that humans are cruel and dangerous animals.

Moral aspect

Numerous reasons are offered for Duror’s apparent hatred of Calum - for setting the rabbits free, loving nature, being agile, protecting the deer and for defiling his wood with his disfigured appearance. This has much to do with the fact that Calum reminds Duror of his abhorrent bedridden wife and all creatures whom he considers to be imperfect. Deeper than this is that Duror is inherently evil, and the woods represent the Garden of Eden which Calum comes to inhabit with his simple, angelic good nature.

During World War Two, millions of Jewish people, homosexuals, disabled and elderly people were murdered by the Nazi regime, led by Hitler. Duror secretly condoned these actions and would have destroyed all goodness for the sake of a physically “perfect” race, even if it means destroying truly innocent and good people like Calum.

Thus, it is fitting that Duror dies in a similar fashion to his hero, Adolf Hitler, by committing suicide after Calum has been sacrificed, like the millions of other innocent victims of World War Two.



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