Some readers of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006) have disputed that the characters in the novel are on a “Quest for God” especially when the future looks so bleak and hopeless as it does in this novel. Why would McCarthy be on a quest for God? For instance, Steven Frye (2009) believes there are a deeper human experience and reflection is what McCarthy writes about and not a “Quest for God”. Frye refers to this passage in The Road,” Just remember that things you put into your head are there forever…You might want to think about that. You forget some things don’t you? Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget” (12). This example shows that the characters are using experience from their past, not looking for a God or are they? There are many times in the novel that the reader, is wondering are they looking for God, even though there is instances that the reader declares no the characters are just trying to endure another day. I believe that God is a force in the book and McCarthy is also trying to point us on a better path than we are currently on. The path we are on now is a life of destruction in carrying a lot of evil; also McCarthy is saying either we stop and listen to what God is trying to tell us or this will be our world.
To validate this claim of a ‘Quest for God’ one might point: “The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions “(52). This could be referring to a bible verse of Revelations 1:17; if the readers know their bible verses well they will catch these subtle hints. In Revelations of the Bible: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the La...
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...Quest for God” within the pages of the novel. I trust McCarthy is trying to tell us to change our ways and live by the rubrics God gave us or face the consequences of our exploits. The author himself is querying if there is or is there not a God, therefore he sent the characters of this novel on a quest of their own. When the author himself is throwing out the query throughout the novel how can you not believe there is a search for God.
Works Cited
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
Frye, Steven. The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy. South Carolina: U of South Carolina, 2009. Print.
Biblica Incorp. "Bible Gateway Passage: Revelation 1:17 - New International Version." Bible Gateway. Bible Gateway, 2011. Web. 10 May 2014. .
"McCarthy, Cormac (1933-)." Modern American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999. 249-251. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.
And in the interview, when the host Winfrey asks a question about “where did this apocalyptic dream come from?” And McCarthy responded to her by mentioning his son John, and McCarthy says about one night, he checked in a hotel with his son John, and John fell to sleep. He felt this town is nothing moving, but he could hear the trains going through. And he came up an image of what this town might look like in 50 or 100 years, then he thought a lot about his son John, and 4 years later, he finished the novel “The Road.” In the late of the interview, McCarthy said: My son practically convert to this book and without him, this book would not come
In Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, the two main characters struggle to keep moving forward. Their motivation to push onward is found in the bottom levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; which are physiological, safety, and emotional. Each of the levels are equally important in order for the man to reach self-actualization. In order to reach the top level, however, the man must fulfill the bottom levels first.
McCarthy’s novel is not about a boy trying to find his place in society, but about a boy trying to find himself and who he really is apart from society. John Grady begins the story with no answers, and at the end he still doesn’t have a clue. There is no resolution for him; there are only more questions, conflicts, and misunderstandings. I think that McCarthy’s point is that to live romantically is to live without cause, without real hope, and ultimately without love. Despite the author’s obvious compassion for John Grady and his idealism, he shows us through romantically descriptive writing that a romantic lifestyle cannot work in this world. The book ends with John Grady riding out into the sunset, having learned nothing, with no place to go. Until the character learns how to compromise with society and give up his romanticism, his life will have no purpose.
"Bible Gateway." BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 100 Versions and 50 Languages. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Imagine a world where everything is black and covered in layers of ash, where dead bodies are scattered throughout the streets and food is scarce. When earth, once green and alive, turns dark and deadly. A story about a man, his son and their will to survive. Within the novel Cormac McCarthy shows how people turn to animalistic and hasty characteristics during a post-apocalyptic time. Their need to survive tops all other circumstances, no matter the consequences. The hardships they face will forever be imprinted in their mind. In the novel, The Road, author Cormac McCarthy utilizes morbid diction and visual imagery to portray a desperate tone when discussing the loss of humanity, proving that desperate times can lead a person to act in careless ways.
“Does belief in God influence decisions?” This question and many others are asked by countless readers after experiencing what is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. This thrilling post-apocalyptic novel follows the journey of a nameless father and son traveling down a long road after what can only be described as the end of the world as we know it. It centers around their fight for survival and their quest to find somewhere in this new world that’s safe. In the background of the gritty feature is the constant thought of God and his influence on moral decisions. McCarthy illustrates through the choices made by the characters how belief in God or lack thereof molds someone’s personal decisions and maybe even slants their moral compass in different directions.
"Bible Gateway Passage: 1 Timothy 6:17 - New International Version." Bible Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014. .
The pages 276-278 begin with a confrontation between the man and the thief. This extract presents a harsh and unforgiving side to the man's character which differs to his portrayal in earlier parts of the novel. He is previously presented as kind and morally upright which contrasts to the cruel and almost immoral way his character behaves in this moment of the novel.
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Through the use of recurring ideas of death, hope and reality, McCarthy conveys that there is no escape; either from the universal destruction caused by the apocalypse or the emotionally destructive effects of dreams. In The Road, dreams reveal the human nature of the characters. McCarthy illustrates the gradual dehumanization of people when life completely changes; he argues that all the terrible things that people could do have already been done, underlining the frailty of our existence. McCarthy ultimately shows us how reliant we are on the past and that we must let go of the past to make way for the future.
In the Novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, survival becomes the biggest quest to life. The novel is set to be as a scene of isolation and banishment from people and places. The author uses the hidden woods as a set of isolation for the characters, in which creates the suspense of traveling to an unspecified destination near the shore. Cormac McCarthy creates a novel on the depth of an imaginative journey, which leads to a road of intensity and despair. The journey to move forward in an apocalyptic world transforms both of the main characters father and son tremendously as time progress. In particular, the boys’ isolation takes him from hope to torment, making him become fearful and imaginative. The images indicate that McCarthy’s post apocalyptic novel relies on images, particular verbal choices, and truthful evidence to how isolation affected the son emotionally and physically.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
The structure and language used is essential in depicting the effect that the need for survival has had upon both The Man and The Boy in The Road. The novel begins in media res, meaning in the middle of things. Because the plot isn’t typically panned out, the reader is left feeling similar to the characters: weary, wondering where the end is, and what is going to happen. McCarthy ensures the language is minimalistic throughout, illustrating the bleak nature of the post-apocalyptic setting and showing the detachment that the characters have from any sort of civilisation. Vivid imagery is important in The Road, to construct a portrait in the reader's mind that is filled with hopelessness, convincing us to accept that daily survival is the only practical option. He employs effective use of indirect discourse marker, so we feel as if we are in the man’s thought. The reader is provided with such intense descriptions of the bleak landscape to offer a feeling of truly seeing the need for survival both The Man and The Boy have. The reader feels no sense of closu...
People always like to refer to themselves as “independent”. Independence may seem like a great ideal in modern society, but in a post-apocalyptic world, a sense of dependence is unavoidable. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs help us to understand what people depend on. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, survival of the boy and the man is due to their dependence on their human nature and ability to support one another.