Examples Of Safety And Terror In The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

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The world has died, and society has gone with it. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a father and his son are some of the only survivors left after a deadly cataclysm has struck the Earth. Most are dead. The only survivors have lost all of their moral and societal beliefs. It is kill or be killed now. Cannibals and murderers are abundant, but the father does not want his son to only experience this world. Born after the world’s end, the son has never seen the beauty of life. All he has known is death. The father tries to have a “normal” life with his son, whatever normal is in this new world. Cormac McCarthy is able to use varying structures to beautifully portray this element of Safety vs Terror, through his lack of names, sentence fragments,
Everything has died, and all that remains is brutality and savagery. People, once neighbors and friends, now turning on each other in the name of survival. It is disturbing and horrific most of the time. Despite this, there is a light in the dark. Two survivors wandering the road, a father and a son. They are some of the last “good guys” on the planet. They are able to survive, despite the horrendous conditions presented to them. They are constantly running from terror, with little safety to hide. They, however, make their own safety. Cormac McCarthy is able to masterfully use things that most writers try their best to avoid. McCarthy writes without using names. This creates a sense of safety between father and son, as they do not need each other 's names. It is just them. McCarthy writes using incorrect grammar. This shows the father and son are alike real people. They are not perfect, cookie cutter characters. They could be anyone the reader knows. They both love each other and feel safe enough with one another. McCarthy writes using short, to the point sentences. This conveys that the son is smart enough to understand what is happening without long descriptions. Despite this knowledge, the father is constantly calming down the kid, furthering their love for one another. McCarthy is a master of writing, and The Road is sure to go down in history as a magnificent piece of

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