Morgan Carroll
Humanities 204
Professor Malone
April 29 2015
Human Nature in The Road: Why Carrying the Fire is Important
Dystopian novels often question the nature of human beings, manipulating different societies to demonstrate how human nature can change as the surrounding environment changes. Underneath societal expectations, however, lives the true nature of human beings, which proves to not be as concrete as it often made out to be. When all notions of society are removed, true human nature and natural morality is all that remains. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road addresses the theme of natural morality and human nature by removing all societies and cultures, and replacing them with the absolute need for survival. Once in this post-apocalyptic
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This also emphasizes the fact that the man relies on the boy to retain his goodness. The man’s lack of fire is McCarthy’s way of showing the reader that the man is the only truly ambiguous character. There are multiple times that the ambiguous nature of the father’s morality becomes apparent, in that each time the man is presented with conflicted, his instinctual response is alway violent in nature, and yet in almost every instance, the man chooses to react in a less violent way due to the boy’s presence. The one exception to this rule happens when the man decided to kill the cannibal that they come in contact with, the boy refuses to speak to his father, showing that he recognizes that his father has the ability to choose goodness over evil and still chooses to be evil. This makes the boy doubt the validity of his father’s goodness. He doesn’t begin speaking to his father again until this is addressed and he is properly convinced that he and his father are still “the good guys”.
“You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you, do you
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It’s inside you. It was always there. I can see it.” (McCarthy 279)
The fire in this sense, represents the boys goodness and ability to power through the evil, struggles, and adversity that he will face alone in the horrific post-apocalyptic world that McCarthy has created.
McCarthy’s focus on the “fire” and it’s relation to human nature answers a question that dystopian novels and populations in general often ask themselves; What is human nature? The answer is that human nature, good or evil, is defined by the individual. One either “carries the fire” or perpetuates it’s destructive nature. The Road begs it’s readers to consider the frailty of human nature and to always remember that, like the man, one has the power to choose if they shall “carry the fire” or not. Goodness and evil, according to McCarthy, are just part of the human condition, and it is up to each individual. rather than innate instincts, to decided what kind of person one will end up as. In order for dystopian societies to be avoided, or rather perfect, utopian societies to form, one must always remember that according to McCarthy, there is free will in the choice to be good or evil. It is important to consider that to maintain the human race, one must always “carry the
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author makes various references to the Bible and to religion. Those references also can be compared on how they have changed the way of humans in real life. Along with how the boy maintains his innocence throughout this whole book even when he witnessed events that could’ve changed him. The man tried to the best of his abilities to preserve the innocence of the boy. Through all of the obstacles that they both faced, the man managed to keep the boy safe and even in his last moments he was sure that he taught his boy how to tell when people were good.
He always wants to help someone else in need before himself, whereas the father is only concerned about their own personal wellbeings. He “is the one” who worries about their ethical choices and wants to help a stranger in any way he can (259). McCarthy proves the importance of the boy’s spirit of love for other people when his dad dies and he must take the leap of faith to continue along the road with a new family. Despite all the corrupted people they encountered beforehand, the boy meets someone who is “carrying the fire” (129). This mantra by the father and son, symbolizes hope and humanity. The qualities Steinbeck labels for a writer to create in his writings can be summed up in “carrying the fire” since the two never did give up. It is the greatness of the heart and spirit Steinbeck notes that is “inside [them]. [And] [i]t [is] always there” (279). It is noteworthy that even in the midst of death and ashes, the two are able to hold onto their relationship and sanity. The “good guys” can continue to carry meaning and structure in their lives, even in a time where society turned into a battle to survive on the remnants of
The imagery of fire continues in the story; the building of their fires, how the man molds the fires, and how they stoke the fire. When the boy gets sick the father is referred to many times of how he builds and rekindles the fire. This actual fire is a symbol for the fire that the man and the boy discuss carrying within in them. The man fights to save his son and the fire within the boy
Imagine being alone in a dark and gloomy world, trying to survive in a place with no food, no shelter and cannibals waiting for you to cross their paths. Cormac McCarthy confronts these fears in his novel, The Road. Released in September 26, 2006, this novel has been opening reader’s eyes to the reality of survival. An unexplained catastrophe has reduced the world to burnt, sparse land, home to few humans, dogs, and burnt plants. Ash and toxic particles fill the air, never letting the sun fully shine through. The main characters are a man and his young son, who are on a long journey south, trying to escape to warmer weather. They're alone, surviving off the bare minimum the land around them is providing. All of their possessions are pushed ahead of them in a shopping cart with a loose, squeaky wheel. They have enough to get by for a few days and then they must scavenge for more. Groups of cannibals roam the world, taking no pity on anything they come across. As they walk along, the deserted roads, the man keeps one eye on a motorcycle mirror attached to the shopping cart, so they are not attacked from behind. The only form of protection they have is a pistol, loaded with a few bullets. Every day is similar; wake up, eat a little food, pack the cart, look at the map and then start walking. In the middle of the book they run into a group of cannibals and the father is tested when his son is captured by one of them. The father and son go for days without food and very little water. One day they come upon an old farm. Here they find an underground shelter filled with food, water, and beds. They can’t believe their luck and fill their shopping cart to the brim. They stay for a couple of days, but then leave to try to make it to warmer ...
McCarthy wrote the novel in ways that force readers to remove themselves from their comfort zones. He wrote The Road with a lack of punctuation that can make things somewhat confusing for readers. Some critics find that without quotation marks it makes the book hard to follow. But when I read the book I found that after the first fifty pages I understood when the characters were speaking. Finding that I had to pay a little more attention didn’t bother ...
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
While reading the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the overall aspect is pessimistic. It is about violence, hardship, death, fear, and the loss of hope. Throughout the book, the two main characters, the man, and boy face up against some of the toughest survival and life lessons. Together they face the woman’s suicide, starvation, the idea of rape, sickness, survival of the apocalypse, and in a sense being hunted like prey by cannibals who also managed to survive the terrifying possibilities that cause Earth to go to chaos. Within the novel, there are hundreds of examples to provide evidence of the pessimistic nature of the novel. Cormac McCarthy who is the author continuously writes in his novel about some of the deepest and darkest situations
Losing a phone compared to being raped, starved, killed, and eaten in pieces makes everyday life seem not so excruciating. Cormac McCarthy was born July 20, 1933 and is one of the most influencing writers of this era. McCarthy was once so poor he could not even afford toothpaste. Of course this was before he became famous. His lifestyle was hotel to hotel. One time he got thrown out of a $40 dollar a month hotel and even became homeless. This is a man who from experience knows what should be appreciated. McCarthy published a novel that would give readers just that message called The Road. Placed in a world of poverty the story is about a man and his son. They travel to a warmer place in hopes of finding something more than the scattered decomposing bodies and ashes. The father and son face hunger, death, and distrust on their long journey. 15 year old Lawrence King was shot for being gay. Known as a common hate crime, the murderer obviously thought he was more superior to keep his life and to take someone’s life. Believing ideas in a possible accepting world with no conditions is dangerous thought to that person’s immunity to the facts of reality.
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.
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...
The Road is a phenomenal example of how raw human nature shapes peoples’ decisions. It addresses the behaviors of people neither informed nor controlled by a social order. In the essence of The Road, people’s actions are highly dependent on the person’s basic needs. A lack of basic human needs often results in the more disturbing view of human nature. (Gilbert pg. 43) Betrayal, suicide, and cannibalism are all examples of behaviors that human nature can bring out of people.
Stephen Siperstein describes Cormac McCarthy’s novel in his essay “Climate Change Fiction: Radical Hope from an Emerging Genre.” He says that her book The Road “perpetuates a particularly pernicious set of assumptions about the relationship between masculine individualism and survival and also makes invisible the racist and sexist dimensions of environmental risk.” Climate change fiction novels should not set certain roles to certain characters based on the color of ones’ race or sex. As they focus on issues such as social class, minorities, and gender roles, Climate change fiction should clearly state the issues in the environment of the novel. Siperstein states that climate change fiction has “opened a space in mainstream media or discussions about how the power of culture, role of environmental humanities, and the necessity for focused climate change education.
I have conflicting thought regarding Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. My initial thoughts of the novel were that it was solely built on the complete devastation of two characters lives and the surrounding landscape and their constant search for survival. However after giving it further insight I discovered the underlying messages of the importance of good and bad people in my life, the beauty of the little things in life and constant greed showed by desperate individuals. I believe the novels successes comes from the messages of the significant value of human life and the importance of memories in our lives.
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.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, follows the journey of a father and a son who are faced with the struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The two main characters are faced with endeavors that test a core characteristic of their beings: their responsibilities to themselves and to the world around them. This responsibility drives every action between the characters of the novel and manifests in many different ways. Responsibility is shown through three key interactions: the man to the boy, the boy to the man, and the boy to the rest of the world. It is this responsibility that separates McCarthy’s book from those of the same genre.