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The road cormac mccarthy essay
Literary criticism of the road by cormac mccarthy
Analysis of cormac mccarthys the road
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Cruelty is callous indifference to or pleasure to causing pain and suffering. Cruelty can be measured in different ways from taking a child's toy or bombing another country, but is there any reason why people commit these cruel acts. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a catastrophic event has happened causing an apocalypse where many people have died, animals are extinct, and the soil is now infertile. This causes the humans to perform cruel acts in order to survive, but are these acts really cruel? People in The Road execute atrocious acts of cruelty in the aspiration of surviving, but do people’s morals affect their acts of cruelty. The Road takes place some time in the future where people are surviving on food made before the apocalypse or by …show more content…
eating other people. The acts the characters commit in this story are cruel in our way of living, but is it really that cruel in this new world that is completely embodied by people’s will to survive? It is hard for the readers to comprehend this new concept of cruelty invoked by Cormac McCarthy because we have not lived through this hardship that he created in The Road. Readers would like to believe that they could never commit such a cruel acts as cannibalism, but who could really know? Cruelty in some situations is necessary this idea is presented in the road many times, but it is also evident in the work Of Mice And Men.
This classic by John Steinbeck has two men, George and Lennie, but the catch is that Lennie is mentally handicapped. Lennie causes problems throughout the book that George has to fix. At the end of this story Lennie kills a vixen of a women by accident. George now comes to the realization that Lennie is a menace to society .George meets Lennie outside of town and shoots him in the head. This was unavoidable because George knows that Lennie will just cause more problems in the future maybe even killing more people. Lennie could be compared to the dog in The Road because if the dog would have kept following them the man would have had to shoot the dog because the dog would have attracted attention with his …show more content…
barking. The main characters in this novel have no names, but the father and son combination that base their cruelty on the ways of the pre-apocalyptic era. The combo have characterized themselves as the “good guys” which is directly stated by this conversation between the man and son, “Are we still the good guys? Yes. We’re still the good guys. And we always will be. Yes we always will be”(77). Many of the book’s audience would agree with because they follow the morals the father lived on in the old days. They may be the good guys because they do not commit cruel acts to survive. They do however do what it takes to survive. Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken can also show why the man and boy’s cruelty is different from the cruelty that others have used. The poem depicts two roads, one of the roads is travelled more often than the other. The path the man and child take because they venture throughout their journey cruelty-free, while others embark on a journey of survival with no morals and can’t live without cruelty. This idea is reinforced by the poem further with this quote,“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference”(16-20). This quote strengthens the idea of the cruelty-free journey because the quote means that this choice has bettered their life and may represent their passage into heaven. Most characters in the The Road do not operate on the same morals as the man and boy.
Cruel acts that the other characters committed in McCarthy’s book may not be cruel in this new world that these characters suffer through. Cannibalism is an unacceptable act in our culture and is by far one of the most cruel acts that can be committed, but in this book it is a means of survival, so is that so cruel. Cruelty is different in this book because the only way to survive is to be cruel to someone else. There are many cruel topics in this book like theft, rape, killings, and cannibalism. These can be taken as cruel affairs, but in this book it is survival of the fittest and the people willing to do what it takes to survive are the fit. Even the man and the boy commit cruel acts like when the man stole their supplies in the shopping cart and they went after him to get those items back. “Take your clothes off. What? Take them off. Every goddamned stitch. Come on. Don’t do this. I’ll kill you where you stand.”(256). This act was the only cruel act they committed. The act was righted by trying to give back the thief’s clothes by leaving them in the road. The act of the man and child trying to give the clothes back is what separates the man and child from the bad guys, ultimately making them the good
guys. In The Road the man and boy continue to struggle with cruelty because their morals prevented them to execute the acts of cruelty that would make it easier for them to survive. The boy’s morals contrasted from the father’s morals in many ways because the boy always wanted to help strangers while the dad was more hesitant to do so. Evidence of this occurs when the boy wants to feed the man that was struck by lightning, but the father knows it will be a waste of food because the man is already far too gone for any of their help to save him. Morals do affect the cruelty of people in this story. The only true cruel people in this story are the people without any morals. The Road provoked an idea of cruelty being a necessity to survive. These acts are not as cruel as you first think them to be once you piece together that they are only perpetrating these acts to survive. Not everyone in this book commits these acts of cruelty, however because the boy and man lead a journey with the least amount of cruelty possible. This created a new idea of morals outweighing the use of cruelty. The thought of morals outweighing cruelty reinforces that people in “The Road” execute atrocious acts of cruelty in the aspiration of surviving, but do people’s morals affect their acts of cruelty.
As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.
the novel, Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, the idea of cruelty is shown through many brutal actions that the characters find pleasurable.
John Steinbeck wrote a story about two men that only had each to depend on. Many of George and Lennie's struggles come from things they cannot control such as Lennie's mental issues. George and Lennie are very poor and they work on farms together, but they have to move a lot because Lennie always does something stupid. The greatest tragedy in Mice and Men was when Lennie was left alone with Curley's wife. She was the reason why Lennie ended up being killed. She knew of to manipulate others to get her way and that is what she relies on most of the time.
Lennie Small, a mentally impaired man, is first introduced to us traveling with George. George, however, is not related to Lennie. Lennie travels with George because no one else understands him like he does. Lennie says, “Because…because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you…” (Steinbeck 14). Lennie believes if George ever left him that he could live in a cave by himself and not bother anyone again (Steinbeck 12). Lennie realizes he would be alone without George, but he never has known anyone else to depend on but George, and from that, they have a bond, a friendship. This shows Lennie’s need for his relationship with George.
At the beginning, the author describes his movement using a metaphor, as Lennie “[drags] his feet… the way a bear drags his paws” (p.2), to show that he is much alike a bear physically. In addition, Steinbeck uses a simile to emphasize Lennie’s animal-like behaviour, as he “[drinks] wit long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse” (p.3). By comparing his physical and behavioural characteristics, this can foreshadow that the author implies that Lennie is seen as more animal than human because of his metal disabilities. George further makes it evident when he infers that “somebody [would] shoot [him] for a coyote if [he] was by [himself]” (p.12). This shows that people are scared of him and his unpredictable, animal-like behaviour because of the lack of understanding about mental health during the early 1900s. Furthermore, this can be the foundation for the theme where the lack of communication and understanding with the mentally disabled can lead to dire and tragic
The novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck introduced the reader to the character George. George is faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to kill his best friend. His best friend, Lennie has a mental disability that resulted in his brain not fully developing. In the 1930’s no one respected people with a disability. George had to constantly run around trying to get Lennie out of trouble and he never had time to himself. Finally when Lennie was getting hunted down by a lynching party for the second time, George thought maybe it was best if Lennie wasn't around anymore. George was devastated that he would no longer have his companion by his side but he could no longer look after Lennie. His decision was tough but he killed Lennie out of love.
Overall, John Steinbeck uses the character of George to represent the harshness of 1930s society and how rare companionship was, even though his companionship with Lennie ended
McCarthy is trying to show that during desperate times there is a sudden loss in humanity due to the uneasiness and the drastic measures one will take in order to survive. A person will do anything it takes to survive in desperate and desolate worlds. McCarthy is proving this with his diction and choice of imagery. A man and a boy set out to survive in a tragic and dangerous world, where the main food source is depleting and all resources are deteriorating. A novel about what is left of a man’s family and how they struggle to survive. Humanity is tested and shows just how extreme ones actions can be. The want for life is tested, one could question whether or not survival will be possible for the man and the
When there is any amount of accepted cruelty being enacted upon a people, change and development occurs immediately so that balance is restored or created. In the novel, the society had conformed to rules and beliefs regarding the value of an individual, “You did what you had to do [and you succeeded]” (Bradbury 145). The people had been forced to act and live in a way that is seen as cruel to us, but normal to them. However, the found order and internal stability of the novel’s setting is admirable to society today in the here and now. Certain examples of changing an entire civilization’s culture regarding the treatment of others in the real-world are able to glorify the statements proclaimed in Fahrenheit 451. In South Africa, there had been a primarily segregative ruling system, entitled Apartheid for the majority of its recent history. However, it was immediately changed and altered once the people of the nation began to experience and realize the identified cruelty that had been placed upon the indigenous South Africans. Immediate change and reorganization of South African society and government occurred. One can presume that change and development, of any society and culture, can be linked to the cruelty, pain, and suffering that is wanted to be stopped or changed. Yet, when there is a different idea of what is wanted, and what is considered to be cruel, a unique reality and set of situations occur, as presented in Ray Bradbury’s
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...
Man’s immorality is expressed in the steady decline of human decency in the civilization that the boys create on their island. In the few weeks after their plane crash which strands them on a paradise-like island, Ralph organizes the boys into an ordered civilization. However, the boys soon realize that nobody is around to reprove them if they hurt, bully, or even kill each other and the animals on the island, and start following the sadistic Jack. He encourages them to become savage by showing them the joy of hurting and killing lesser animals. The actions of the boys show that Man’s morals were not imbedded in his being, but bred into him by the pressures of civilization. Without civilization to keep people in check, they start to run wild, because nobody is restraining them. This property is shown especially by Roger in Lord of the Flies. In the beginning ...
In McCarthy’s novel The Road, one of the main issues deals with cannibalism and the moral/ethic issues of survival. Though McCarthy depicts cannibalism negatively in this post-apocalyptic world, it is apparent that cannibalism is necessary for humans to survive when there is no real food to eat. Whether they know what’s actually good vs what is actually bad, they still have a reason to try and stay alive even though things are absolutely terrible around them. Staying alive, to carry the fire for the good of humanity. In a world where everything is just coming to an end, people resort to eating each other in order to stay alive. Where there are bad and good people, but what does it actually mean to be bad? Eating human beings or not helping those people in need of help?
""The Art of Cruelty"" The New York Times Book Review, 31 July 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
It is a novel based in a post-apocalyptic world that revolves around the lives of a father and his son who are just trying to survive. With everything around them destroyed and stripped of life, the two continue their lives hoping for better days to come. They live in a constant state of fear with everyday being spent constantly moving and scavenging for food, all while trying to remain unnoticed. Living in a world where survival is the only goal, the idea of morality has become non-existent. Cannibalism is a major fear because everyone around them is a potential predator. But in this “Barren, silent, godless” (The Road 4) world, where “the days more gray each one then what had gone before” (The Road 1), the man and his son are able to hold their own. Their sense of morality remains intact and they refuse to resort to the lifestyle that the majority of people around them have chosen. They feel as though certain actions are intrinsically wrong and therefore never justifiable. The man refers to himself and his son as the “good guys” and Erik J. Wielenberg explains that they follow a specific moral code. This code includes the rules: Don’t eat people, Don’t steal, Don’t lie, Keep your promises, Help others, and Never give up. (Wielenberg 4). According to these principles, cannibalism is never justifiable. Although the threat of starvation has caused the society to resort to cannibalism, the man and his son promise one another that regardless of the situation, they will refuse to do it. “We wouldn’t ever eat anybody, would we? ..No matter what?” The father assures his son by repeating, “No. No, matter what” (The Road