Between a Rock and a Hard Place

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place”

Litotes: The idiom understates the extreme danger and horror of the decision, reinforcing the memoir’s partly entertaining tone.

“I come to another drop-off.”

Present tense: Creates immediacy, as if events are unfolding in real time.

“refrigerator chockstone”

Metaphor: Comparing the rock to a refrigerator suggests its heavy, imposing weight.

“claustrophobic” / “narrows”

Adjective and verb choice: Begin to emphasise enclosure and foreshadow entrapment.

“Sometimes in narrow passages like this one”

Adverbial phrasing: “Sometimes” implies experience. ,Irony: His expertise contrasts with his later helplessness.

“stem” / “counterpressure” / “stemming or chimneying”

Technical lexis: Builds credibility and warns that accidents can happen to experts.

“you can imagine using it”

Analogy: Helps readers visualise the action and understand technique.

“a chockstone the size of a large bus tire”

Comparison: Emphasises scale and impending danger.

“stuck fast in the channel”

Proleptic irony: His confidence in the rock’s stability is tragically misplaced.

“If I can step onto it, then I’ll have a nine-foot height to descend”

Real-time narration: Allows the reader to follow the reasoning that leads to disaster.

“stemming” / “traverse” / “press” / “lock” / “kick” / “squat” / “grip”

Active verbs: Show control and physical dominance, which contrasts with his later self

“supports me but teeters slightly”

Verb choice: “Teeters” foreshadows instability and danger.

“akin to climbing down from the roof of a house”

Analogy: Makes the experience accessible to non-specialist readers.

“I feel the stone respond” / “disturb it from its position”

Zoomorphism: The rock becomes an adversary, reacting like a living thing.

“with a scraping quake”

Onomatopoeia: Creates a harsh, unsettling auditory image.

“the backlit chockstone falling towards my head consumes the sky”

Zoomorphism: The rock is monstrous, blocking out light.

“fear shoots my hands over my head”

Personification: Fear acts independently, overpowering him.

“Time dilates, as if I’m dreaming”

Metaphor and simile: Creates a cinematic slow-motion effect, showing shock.

“smashes” / “ricochets” / “crushes” / “ensnares”

Pattern of violent verbs: Emphasises force and brutality.

“tearing the skin off the lateral side of my forearm”

Gruesome imagery: Conveys visceral physical pain.

“Then silence.”

Short sentence: Stark contrast to chaos, suggesting shock.

“My disbelief paralyses me” / “The flaring agony throws me into a panic” / “My mind commands my body”

Passive constructions: Show loss of control to physical responses.

“The flaring agony”

Metaphor: “Flaring” suggests burning, searing pain.

“grimace and growl”

Verb choice: Animalistic behaviour contrasts with earlier rationality and is reduced to a primitive and emotional reaction

“But I’m stuck.”

Short, simple sentence: Conveys brutal finality and compromising truth, and reverse the situation as before the rock is stuck

“while my body’s chemicals are raging at full flood”

Metaphor: “Full flood” conveys overwhelming physiological response.

“heaving” / “pushing” / “lifting”

Tricolon of present participles: Builds expectation of escape through effort.

“shove” / “brace” / “thrust”

Active verbs: Signal determination and resistance.

“Nothing.”

Single-word sentence: Undercuts effort, ending on hopelessness.