Albert Hernandez Ms. Bolin CSU Expos Read/Write 1: Period 5 20 September 2016 The Road Lit Circle #2 Discussion Questions: In pages 84 to 86, why did the man decide to ignore the boy that the little boy saw? How does the man’s decision affect the story and the characters? What is the purpose of the red scarfs in the group of armed men? What did the man mean when he said, “Heʼd been ready to die and now he wasn’t going to and he had to think about that...This was not hiding in the woods. This was the last thing from that” (McCarthy 144)? What meaning does the man’s dream have on page 144 to 145? Dialectical Journal: Passage Response "He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The speaker indicates that the actions of humans on earth are not witnessed or weighed by a higher power, or even by those who have already lived and died. If there is a moral center, it is not defined by the principles once held by the dead, but by the individual. Or perhaps that the person is the final judge of their own actions. "Maybe he understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed. The tales of which were suspect. He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world he'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he" (McCarthy 129-130). This passage describes the power of storytelling to create realities. The father tells his son "tales" about life before the catastrophe which has rendered the earth a wasteland to its survivors. However, to the son, these tales are hard to believe because they are so unlike the current reality. The father, having experienced the pre-apocalyptic world, is thus alien to the son, who knows only life after the disaster. "There is no God and we are his prophets" (McCarthy
To what lengths would you go for a loved one? Would you destroy something in hopes that it would save them? That 's what Lyman Lamartine did in hopes to fix his PTSD afflicted brother. "The Red Convertible" was written by Louise Erdrich in 1974 and published in 2009 along with several other short stories. Lyman, and Henry, are brothers. The story starts by telling us about how the two brothers acquired a red convertible. Henry ends up being drafted into the Vietnam War, and comes back home suffering from PTSD. One day the pair decided to take a drive to the Red River because Henry wanted to see the high water. Ultimately, the story ends with a cliff-hanger, and we are left wondering what happens to the boys. The symbolic nature of the red convertible will play a key role in this literary analysis, along with underling themes of PTSD and war.
Jack Kerouac's On the Road is considered the bible of the Beat Generation, illustrating the wild, wandering, and reckless lifestyle chosen by many young people of the time. Despite all of Dean and Sal's partying and pleasure-cruising, On the Road ends up being a sad and disturbing story. During all the trips, through the good times and the bad times, there is a sense of darkness and foreboding following in the wake. Kerouac's point was not to put on display the wild and good times the Beats were having, but rather to expose their way of life as a simple flight from reality and responsibility. The sadness of this novel is due to the accumulation of consequences stemming from the characters' irresponsibility and general lack of direction. Dean and Sal, however, never fully admit this to themselves. Part of the story's beauty is Sal's non-judgmental narrative. To preserve this, Kerouac must carefully incorporate these views while leaving Sal somewhat oblivious to them. This is done using other characters to implant the notion of looming responsibility and reality into the story, and to communicate to the reader that life really is more serious than Sal admits in his narration.
...acters, an unidentified apocalypse, and specks of detail, allowing readers to imagine a desolated setting on a blank canvas. Its two main characters, who symbolize the last strength for the human race, are forced onto a road that stretches to the coastal shores. The absent presence of everyday humans, plants, and wildlife generally fits the science fiction genre. Conversations between both father and son are limited to plain words that the child may only comprehend to. As a result, all responses produce disheartening lines of gloom and obscurity, though the child remains innocent during the days of darkness. He is also an icon of hope that the father holds onto, endlessly tending to the child’s living. Overall, this novel presents the terrible apocalypse in the modern times of before, to the aftermath between two characters who will soon meet their fate.
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 perceive the value of human life as invaluable. Your text enables me to envision how life would be without the comfort and security of civilization. The man’s views on life are judged by his experiences and his sole objective is to keep him and the boy alive. The father repeatedly promises himself and the boy that he would do anything for him. “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.” (pg 80).The boy returns the act of concern that the man has for him. The boy puts a large emphasis on that the man also must eat and drink ‘you to’. His compassion and willingness to help others in need brings conflict between him and his father. “Cant we help him? Papa? No. We cant help him.” (pg 51) The difference of the father’s practicability and the boy’s compassion is predominant. The text reinforces the idea that all life is sacred and important.
Chopin uses spring time and nature as a symbols of the renewal and hopefulness Mrs. Mallard is feeling now that she believes her husband has died. Chopin writes that in her room Mrs. Mallard "could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life," (307). Spring represents new life and Chopin uses that representation in order to suggest that Mrs. Mallard feels like she too will have a new life now that her husband is dead. This is not what the reader would expect a new widow to feel, but Chopin uses this symbolism to foreshadow future events in the short story.
The stranger remarks as to how he has had numerous problems at sea, and had afterwards been held captive by some Indians. He thinks it is wrong that the father of the child has not been named or come forward.
Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” encompasses ideas of the beat generation, takes you along, and allows you to see the people and the situations of America at a time immediately following World War II; how people lived, and how, at least in Sal’s case, people changed. Kerouac exemplifies one’s dissatisfaction with the responsibilities that the society ties an individual down with, opting to always be on the road avoiding commitment, therefore antagonizing themselves from the mainstream views of the post-world war II American society.
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.
“Authors use setting to create meaning, just as painters use backgrounds and objects to render ideas.” - Literary Anthology. The setting of "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, takes place on a cold December morning during the 1940 's. In "A Worn Path", the setting allows readers to grasp a better understanding of various components which make up the story. The components are the character qualities, symbols and the mood and atmosphere. The path the main character, Phoenix, follows to the city and what she endures through her journey shows what kind of person Phoenix is and the true qualities of her character. The symbols found in the setting allow a deeper incite to the meaning of the story and why they are present.
It seems ironic that in both instances, the protagonist has reached the alien environment from violent circumstances. In Amy Foster, the main character, Yanko Goorall, falls victim to a shipwreck, leaving him stranded in a mysterious land. For instance, Conrad writes: “…he was a castaway…washed ashore here in a storm. And for him…England was an undiscovered country” (Conrad 140). Upon arrival, he was desperate and in need of shelter and sustenance, causing him to appear as though he was behaving erratically. “The driver of Mr. Bradley’s milk-cart made no secret of it that he had lashed with his whip at a hairy sort of gipsy fellow who, jumping at a turn of the road…made a snatch at the pony’s bridle” (Conrad 145). This is justified by the narrator who claims: “Maybe that in his desperate endeavours to get help, and in his need to get in touch with some one, the poor devil had tried to stop the cart” (Conrad 145). Although Yanko had appeared to be behaving oddly, his behaviors were also responded to in a rather harsh f...
In the first paragraph, Stephen King begins the story with the main character as an old man describing the horrific event that occurred to him at the age of nine. With this it shows that even at his old age, this horrific event that occurred to him many years ago, it still haunts him. As the story continues, he mentions that he has a book marked “Diary.” Using that shows that he must write
Decisions, decisions! So, what we do is come up with some justification for the choice we have made, even though we are already questioning our decision, even as we make it. When the choices are so close to being equal, does it real...
Throughout the novel The Circle Dave Eggers explores many modern day issues and realistic concerns about how technology has integrated itself into humanity. This is done through the fictional tale of a young woman working her way up through a company and all the hardships she faces along the way. Similar to the way Orwell does this in his novel 1984, Eggers creates a society without privacy and arguably with no freedom. Considering the world today this is a legitimate, but unsettling, possibility. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book for several reasons. These include, but are not limited to the author’s overall satirical standpoint, the way this society is completely different from reality yet still feels eerily similar to how the world today is and is headed, and the excellent and modern writing style with which the author entraps the reader.
Robert Frosts “The Road Not Taken” shows how the choices that one makes now will ultimately effect one’s life later. In addition, one cannot go back and change the choices that one makes had made later in life. The symbolism the speaker uses signals that a choice is permanent and it effects one’s life and the people around one’s life.