Question

question 10

in the following excerpt, all of the following are reasons why the reader doesnt need the quotation marks to understand the conversation except for which?
then he opened his eyes. hi, papa, he said. im right here. i know.

mccarthy indicates that the child says the words by including \he said.\
the reader is already used to doing without punctuation at this point.
mccarthy changes lines when the speaker changes, so its easy to follow.
the words \hi, papa\ are clearly speech and not narration.

Explanation:

Analyze the excerpt and dialogue structure

The excerpt is: "Then he opened his eyes. Hi, Papa, he said. I'm right here. I know."
This is written in Cormac McCarthy's signature style, which omits quotation marks for dialogue.
In this specific excerpt, both speakers' lines ("Hi, Papa, he said. I'm right here." and "I know.") are written sequentially on the same line without a line break separating the two speakers.

Evaluate the given options

• Option 1: "McCarthy indicates that the child says the words by including 'he said.'" This is true; the dialogue tag "he said" explicitly identifies the speaker.
• Option 2: "The reader is already used to doing without punctuation at this point." This is true; readers of the novel adapt to his stylistic choices over time.
• Option 3: "McCarthy changes lines when the speaker changes, so it's easy to follow." This is false for this specific excerpt. Both "I'm right here" (said by the boy) and "I know" (said by the father) are placed on the exact same line. Therefore, line-switching is not a reason helping the reader here.
• Option 4: "The words 'Hi, Papa' are clearly speech and not narration." This is true; the vocative address "Papa" and the conversational tone make it immediately recognizable as spoken dialogue.

Answer:

• (A) McCarthy indicates that the child says the words by including "he said."
• (B) The reader is already used to doing without punctuation at this point.
• (C) McCarthy changes lines when the speaker changes, so it's easy to follow. (Correct answer)
• (D) The words "Hi, Papa" are clearly speech and not narration.