Dylan Cutting Ms. MacDonald Genres of Literature and Composition Honors 3/25/24 The Essence of Sacrifice in The Road Published on September 26, 2006, The novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, illustrates a tale of a journey of hardships. It shows a father and son duo traveling across the ruins of what once was the United States. Throughout the journey they encounter many trials and tribulations, yet, their main concern stays consistent throughout the story: cannibals. The duo travels on despite the looming threat of cannibals and illness seeking the south as they physically can not survive the coming winter. Luckily, they are able to make it very far using a common device: sacrifice, the means to show love in a world void of law. The father continuously …show more content…
Around halfway through the novel, they run into an inconvenience. They had just obtained a canister of propane that would fuel their fire for at least a couple of weeks. Yet unfortunately, the child had forgotten to turn the valve back to closed, rendering the tank empty and the propane somewhere in the atmosphere. While most would scold the child for such an accident. The father does no such thing and doesn’t even mention how it was the child’s fault until the child figures it out on his own. The fathers ability to control his temper, ”After a while the boy said: I forgot to turn off the valve, didn’t I?/ It's not your fault. I should have checked.” shows just how much he's sacrificing to continue being civil and keep their pace towards the coast (McCarthy 176). One final showcase happens right about the end of their long and dangerous journey. The boy's father had just died and the kid was suffering greatly. He saw a man walking on the road and was skeptical but did not run to hide. He pointed the gun at him, but the man spoke to him and in the end recruited him to come and live with him and the other survivors. Even though the kid has this harsh and disrespectful demeanor towards the man, he still continues to try and help the
McCarthy’s use of biblical allusions help to create a setting in which all the characters have more complex parts to play than what it seems like at first glance. The allusions also create the tone, which is somber, and almost dream like. The protagonist had his “palms up” while sleeping, which could mean that he fell asleep as he was praying, or in other words pleading. Yet when he woke up “it was still dark”, this creates a hopeless ton because even after all of the begging, the world he woke up to was a dark one. When the wolf dies, the protagonist imagines her “running in the mountains” with different
The narrative Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, tells the true story of a young boy’s dangerous path from Mexico to the United States, in hopes of reuniting with his mother. Along Enrique’s trek he sacrifices his safety, well-being, and even the possibility of his life to be with his mother once again. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, gives up the ultimate sacrifice of missing her children grow up, causing their love and affection they once held for their dear mother to dwindle, all of which so she can provide money and security for her family. Sacrifice is a key theme in this narrative because without the difficult decisions made and the loss the characters so tragically endured, then they would not have been able to reap the reward of a reunited,
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the boy and his father carry the fire within themselves. This image of fire is the true nature of their courage to continue on the road to the unknown.
“The greatest sacrifice is when you sacrifice your own happiness for the sake of someone else.” Sacrifice does not come easy, but one sacrifice can inspire many as seen in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In the novel McMurphy sacrifices himself to undergo a lobotomy to inspire the other men on the ward that they aren’t crazy and they can stand up for themselves.
Miller, D. Quentin. "Cormac McCarthy: Overview." Contemporary Novelists. Ed. Susan Windisch Brown. 6th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. N.pag. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 May 2011.
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
The father often uses the phrase “carrying the fire,” to suggest the knowledge the son must inherit from his father in order to one day continue the father's legacy. The father tries to educate his son in goodness, survival, and decency even though all such humanity has been extinguished. His efforts to preserve civilized manners reflect his nurturing and give purpose to his existence. Before the father dies he tells his son that all this fire—warmth, instinct for good, and knowledge—lives inside him: “You have to carry the fire. I don't know how to. Yes, you do. Is the fire real? The fire? Yes, it is. Where is it? I don't know where it is. Yes, you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it” (McCarthy 278-279). The fire has multiple symbolic meanings for the man and the boy. For the man the fire represents the love he has for his son because his son is his reason for continuing. It is also the man’s moral code, his way to refrain from turning evil and committing murder or cannibalism. For the boy the fire symbolizes the kindness he carries even when he has been exposed to evil. Since the boy was born after the catastrophic event, he embodies a sense of purity, an untainted fire within him. Consequently, the son is more naïve and trusting of others than his father. McCarthy's “carrying the fire” functions as a metaphor of knowledge and hope for humanity, the natural instinct to keep going and hope for something better along the
Sacrifices, though often difficult to make, can be ultimately be beneficial. Whether that sacrifice be a job, a person, a lifestyle, or a way of thinking, it can better the lives of everyone involved. A great example of this fact lies in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath when a preacher named Jim Casy sacrifices his position after he has self-proclaimed “sinful ideas”, which he soon discovers to be more sensible and even applicable to his life, and moreover the entire work. When Jim Casy sacrificed his position as a preacher, and, with that, his past values, he opened his mind to accept profound ideas regarding holiness, togetherness, and revolution which ultimately prove to be the themes of the novel as a whole.
“ Things are rough all over” by Cherry Valance. Cause the sacrifices they made and the violence they were exposed to, the “Greasers” struggled more that the “Socs”.In the book The Outsiders many people have a certain point of view, many people believe that the Greaser struggles more than the rich people the Socs. Darry drops out of high school to help his little brothers, they struggle more because their not wealthy and don’t have money or jobs like the Socs. Some people believe that the Socs have it harder because they are sometimes left alone and don’t have their mom and dad all the time.Cause the sacrifices they made and the violence they were exposed to, the “Greasers”
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 ...
New Wark or New York A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a story of great sacrifices being made for the sake of principle. There are many examples of this throughout the book made by many of the characters, but some more evident than others. In Book The First, entitled “Recalled to Life,” the most obvious sacrifice for the sake of principle was made by Dr. Manette. He was imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, for no apparent reason.
McCarthy’s novel clarifies the affects isolation made for the traveler’s in the story. In particular to the son, isolation affected him in a more discrete way than the father. Everything he sees and experiences goes into great affect in what makes
"Bible Gateway." BibleGateway.com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 100 Versions and 50 Languages. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
The Gift of a Lifetime: Sacrifice in a Tale of Two Cities. Some men are engraved eternally in the hearts and minds of those he inspired. It is done so in a fashion that allows his name to live eternally, long after his ephemeral existence. However, what truly sets a man apart from his lesser counterparts is his willingness to give without taking.
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in the post-apocalyptic world that the man and the boy live in, dreams begin to take on the form of a new “reality.” As the novel progresses, the man’s dreams, initially memories remnant of his pre-apocalypse life, become “brighter” as the boy’s dreams become darker and nightmarish. Through the use of color and distinct language, McCarthy emphasizes the contrast between reality and dreams. The man’s reliance on bad dreams to keep him tied to the harsh reality alludes to the hopelessness of the situation; he can never truly escape. McCarthy suggests that those who strive for a life that no longer exists are deluded with false hope. Having dreams is a natural human tendency, but in a world that has become so inhumane, the man can’t even afford to retain this element of being human. The loss of the past is a concept that the characters living in this ashen world struggle with, and McCarthy presents memory as a weakness to be exploited.