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Post apocalyptic literature
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Recommended: Post apocalyptic literature
In The Road you are exposed to a post apocalyptic setting, in which you are shown how strong you must be to survive and the willingness to do so. The son and father represent souls trying to find the spark in the darkness. By not being in this setting you gain knowledge of what to do and how to do it to stay alive. People are different in different circumstances and will change with their surroundings. But some will continue to fight for what they know to be right, even if it means going against the crowd, just like the father and son had done. All you need is a spark, no matter how small, to keep you going. There was very little light in this book, but the son seemed to be the sun to his father. He was what kept him moving forwards and alive.
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
Readers develop a compassionate emotion toward the characters, although the characters are detached and impersonal, due to the tone of The Road. The characters are unidentified, generalizing the experience and making it relatable – meaning similar instances can happen to anyone, not just the characters in the novel. McCarthy combined the brutality of the post-apocalyptic world with tender love between father and son through tone.
Throughout the novel the feelings the man has for his son are sacred; the man makes great sacrifices for his son to continue to live and have a future in a world that has been devastated and stripped of all humanity. The boy is the only source of light for
He could only see by the light of a candle. Light also represents discovery. Not only does it represent discovery in this book, but also in life. When you discover something everyone knows the saying is a light bulb in your head going off. Equality 7-2521 and the golden one find a new discovery of light. They called it the power of light and we call it electricity. See, they discovered an old invention to use but a very new invention to them. This is so important because this discovery is what brings the climax of the story. The discovery of light is what brings pain to Equality 7-2521 and the Golden One at first when they are lashed, but in the end their discovery brought them to a house full of new and exciting things to them. Light made this story and light makes the world go
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...
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road intensely reflects on the importance of relationships as a survival tactic and the struggle to exist as a good person in an immoral world. The relationship between the father and the boy is heavily amplified as the father tries to give his son an understanding of the world he was born into. The father abandons his retelling of history or the past to his son. He struggles to decide if he wants his son to intellectually understand the world or rather survive in it? Their relationship can be compared and contrasted to Rick and Carl from The Walking Dead; both father/son groups relate to being the “good guys” in the new world. However, Rick has full-on moral discussions with Carl, while the father in The Road tends to
Family and environment play crucial role for both children protagonists and helps to form their character. While Esperanza is surrounded by a huge family (mother, father, sister and two brothers) and friends, the small boy has only his father, when his mother died some time ago. Michael Sauder and Chad Michael McPherson in their essay The Value of a Negative Case observe that in The Road the man is the only source of information for his son, so he tries to teach him everything he can, chiefly the reality of the present world and practical questions of survival. They later mention that the boy knows only this post-apocalyptic world, so he must be aware of all the dangers the road can bring to them. On the other hand, unlike the small boy, who...
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is a novel set in a post-apocalyptic world where the weak die and the strong survive. The novel really focuses on the challenges that this world presents and the motivation one would need to overcome them. The difference in living and dying could be whether or not one has something to believe in and to motivate them with. The Road also contains a very strict code by which the main characters, the man and the boy, live by and judge themselves by. Throughout the novel, the man’s and boy’s belief in God and their good moral values motivates them to continue surviving.
With the son’s fear amongst the possibility of death being near McCarthy focuses deeply in the father’s frustration as well. “If only my heart were stone” are words McCarthy uses this as a way illustrate the emotional worries the characters had. ( McCarthy pg.11). Overall, the journey of isolation affected the boy just as the man both outward and innerly. The boys’ journey through the road made him weak and without a chance of any hope. McCarthy states, “Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all” (McCarthy pg. 28). The years of journey had got the best of both, where they no longer had much expectation for
Survival is the ability to continue to survive, and remain alive after the death of someone else. It is important to have the essential resources required to survive such as food, water, and shelter. Although, there is more to survival than just food, water, and shelter that are required as essential resources. Survival means life, rather than death as demonstrated by Cormac McCarthy in The Road. There are important personality traits that separate those who survive, and those who do not survive. It is important to persevere, have hope, and make sacrifices as shown in the novel. As, the man and the boy in The Road demonstrate what is necessary for survival in their journey along the road in the novel. Through their journey they show perseverance, hope, and sacrifice as personality traits that lead their survival. McCarthy demonstrates that perseverance, hope, and sacrifice are key factors to the father, and his sons survival in The Road.
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.
In the novel “The Road” By Cormac McCarthy, the two main characters; the man and the boy faced several issues throughout their journey. With each encounter, a different side of them is displayed which assists with developing their personal characteristics. Certain encounters revealed the characters moralistic side and other encounters revealed their deprave sides. Based on the man and the boys actions, one can personally choose whether they are antagonists or protagonists.
The narrator chose to take one road and will claim in his later years that the one he took was the one less traveled by because he had never traveled it until then and it sets up a story to tell everyone if he says he took the road less traveled by.
At first the relationship between a father and his son can be perceived as a simple companionship. However, this bond can potentially evolve into more of a dynamic fitting relationship. In The Road The Man and his son have to depend on one another because they each hold a piece of each other. The Man holds his sons sense of adulthood while the son posses his father’s innocence. This reliance between the father and son create a relationship where they need each other in order to stay alive. “The boy was all that stood between him and death.” (McCarthy 29) It is evident that without a reason to live, in this case his son, The Man has no motivation to continue living his life. It essentially proves how the boy needs his father to love and protect him, while the father needs the boy to fuel ...
The narrator’s father and mother are separated, causing the tension between the father and son with their different personalities, but they bond over the thrill of driving through the snow. The son is very responsible and scheduled, while the father is “rumpled, kind, bankrupt of honor,