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Compare the road by cormac mccarthy to
Violence in mid 20th century literature
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My presentation will be about the depiction and meaning of violence and human nature, in C.M.’s novels.
The human mind harbors a very rich imagination when it comes to the envisioning of our demise, demonstrating the individual’s appeal towards this notion, because we love to play with the idea of an impending apocalypse and what comes after it.
The world Cormac McCarthy wrote about is certainly the grimmest and most decayed place a person may live in, because of the absence of law managements and higher authorities which should guide or oppress the population, and the freedom humanity has at its hands. McCarthy wants to point out the reality that humans should be allowed to exercise their free will, but must not exaggerate, and develops circumstances which display the extent to which people are willing to abuse their independence and unleash their dark side. because the majority of the inhabitants of this planet are willing to resort to other means of survival, which are selfish and immoral, if not for the existence of legislation and order.
Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic no...
Cormac McCarthy once said, “I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone can live in harmony is a really dangerous idea.” (Overview) This quote leaves us with the impression that humanity as a whole is innately violent, and we will explore this idea by examining “Blood Meridian.” This paper consists of three main topics, all of which have subtopics. The first topic explores the Western setting of “Blood Meridian” and its effect on human behavior. Its subtopics are the absence of responsibility, the failure of manifest destiny’s ideals, and seeing the west as an escape from the past and time. The second topic delves deeper into the nature of Cormac McCarthy’s quote; it asks whether humans are inherently violent. The subtopics for this section are racism and hate as a drive, greed as a drive, and the metaphorical significance of two events in the book. The last topic is man’s need to be led and the way their leader leads them. The subtopics for the last section are the parallel between Hitler and Judge Holden, and the Judge’s general philosophy including the way he leads the men.
The books Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and Anthem by Ayn Rand are both valuable twentieth-century contributions to literature. Both books explore the presence of natural law in man and propose a warning for what could happen when man's sense of right and wrong is taken from him. In this essay, I hope to show how these seemingly unrelated novels both expound upon a single, very profound, idea.
This story contains an almost equal balance of good and evil, though it also raises questions of what is truly good. It blurs the line between good and selfish or thoughtless. Characters’ actions sometimes appear impure, but in the long run, are good.
By focusing on macro-level regenerative violence, McCarthy embraces Paul Valery’s thesis. This theory of the Assumed Infinity can be conceptualized through the concept of the trend versus momentary fluctuations, and the importance of each] in its own right. Specific moments in life are where there are bursts of adrenaline, feelings of emotion, etc, and are short and are encapsulated in a moment. Trends ignore all of the miniscule bumps along the road, no matter their importance, and rather focus on the form and the end goal of the pattern. Paul Valery states that in compliance with this theory and in thriving for unattainable perfection, he “fashioned for myself a poetry void of hope, a poetry that had no other purpose and almost no other law than to establish for me a way of living with myself, for a part of my days. I set no term to it, and I imposed conditions enough to provide matter for labor without end.” In Valery’s mind, the path towards perfection began with no hope and focused on the bare minimum of laws. Essentially, a destruction of all the unnecessary parts of the world, and focusing only on the bare necessities. This poetry which Valery describes is the beginning of his work, which he describes as “matter for labor without end.” The concept of working with no end is an embrace of the concept of
Power and control are universal themes in literature. Steven Spielberg in Minority Report and Tom Rob Smith in Child 44 explore a different interpretation of these themes to attempt to explain their role in society. The authors display this by contrasting societies; one set in 2054 while the other in 1953. Free will and Fear; are the two key ideas which are expressed through the texts. Spielberg sets Minority Report in a dystopian universe, where freewill is at a minimum and control over society is at an all time high, while Tom Rob Smith uses the Soviet Union, another dystopian society to investigate the relationship between fear and it’s use to gain power and control.
The connection that McCarthy made between the book and the events in the world, or society of today, are that of close resemblance of what humanity really is. The real side of human thought and action when pushed and developed in an unforgiving environment. Each concept reviles the connection of what people in the story and people in our own world are really about. That in reality, there are people that are just pure evil, and humanity has a dark side to it. When shaped and forged in the hardships which the kid and many other people in the story are dealt with they become that very same evil that in today’s world people face.
Priola, Marty. "The Textual McCarthy I: 'Christian' readings of the novels." The Cormac McCarthy Home Pages. Accessed: July 27, 2003. http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/archives/textual.htm. (Note: Link no longer valid as of January 06, 2004.)
McCarthy’s setting never varies throughout his entire novel. Every scene is dark, the landscape is always forlorn and destroyed, the endless journey seems to be hopeless, “nights beyond dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before” (3). The author creates a post-apocalyptic world deprived of life, joy and hope.
Introduction Individuals often yield to conformity when they are forced to discard their individual freedom in order to benefit the larger group. Despite the fact that it is important to obey the authority, obeying the authority can sometimes be hazardous, especially when morals and autonomous thought are suppressed to an extent that the other person is harmed. Obedience usually involves doing what a rule or a person tells you to, but negative consequences can result from displaying obedience to authority; for example, the people who obeyed the orders of Adolph Hitler ended up killing innocent people during the Holocaust. In the same way, Stanley Milgram noted in his article ‘Perils of Obedience’ of how individuals obeyed authority and neglected their conscience, reflecting how this can be destructive in real life experiences. On the contrary, Diana Baumrind pointed out in her article ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that the experiments were not valid, hence useless.
The author remarks that the violence in the early works of McCarthy is random and most likely going to happen again. This is contrasted with the violence of the Trilogy, which represents a thematic element in the story and is high point of tension.
In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a man and the boy live in a post-apocalyptic world in which fire has destroyed much of the landscape leaving forests and cities in ash and ruins. They spend a majority of their days trekking a southbound road, and throughout their journey on the road, they are unremittingly challenged by their environment. The threat of cannibals capturing them, the possibility of hypothermia, and imminent starvation are constant terrors. Each trial they face is met with the man’s constant attempts to encourage the boy. Due to the troubles they face and the security they lack, it is difficult for the man to keep the faith to continue on their journey. Because of the many mentions in the novel, the man and boy’s recognition of an omniscient being is proof they rely on a god to be their motivation and the man’s hope for the future is fueled by a higher power acting as their guiding light.
In Joyce Carol Oates’s short story, “Heat”, the author is showing the reality of violence through the time period of the story. The story is two girls, Rhea and Rhoda, who torment the other children in their county in various ways and eventually end up getting hurt. I will look at the theme of power, the theme of revenge, and the theme of fate to prove that the author is showing the reality of violence.
The first page of the book the road written by Cormac McCarthy used many narrative techniques. McCarthy wrote the novel in 3 rd person making it less bias, but more mysterious as nothing is revealed in the description of the 2 characters mentioned. The sentence structure is long and describing the location with no dialogue shown. The location was described, but no specifics, no names of the location all that was known is it is in the woods. Two characters are introduced, but not described one presumably a male adult and another a child. This technique McCarthy uses keeps the audience in extreme suspense as no information has been revealed and encourages the reader to keep reading if they want to know more.
Even by looking forward to the anticipation of the future and the novelty of the present, there is the risk of being lost in the familiar past, a concept that “No Simple Thing” employs. This can be explained by a simple evolutionary trait. As a species, humans have the tendency to plan in preparation for future possibilities. It is necessary to analyze and interpret the past for the future. This, however, can be a slippery slope of delving too deep and centralizing energy for what cannot be changed, as seen in
Complete free exercise of will inhibits individual and societal freedom. According to Mill, one may act as one chooses unless one is inflicting harm onto others. He argues that one is free to behave “according to his own inclination and judgment in things which concern himself” as long as “he refrains from molesting” (64). The problem arises in the freedom allowed to the individual performing the potentially dangerous act. People are often blinded by the situation in which they are in and by their personal motives which drive them to act. Humans, by nature, have faults and vices that are potentially harmful. It is the responsibility of society to anticipate harm, whether to oneself or to others. Once dangerous patterns and habits are recognized it is imperative to anticipate and prevent injury from reoccurring. To allow any individual to be inflicted harm forces citizens to lose tr...