Thesis: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy uses motifs to create meaning in the novel by working with Memory vs. Past, in doing so creates a confusion with The Man telling The Boy the supposed “Past Memories.” Memory is a double-ended sword The main character wants to remember the past, but when he does, he has trouble focusing on survival.The Boy always asks The Man to tell stories about the past life before what happened and he finally thought after all the times of lying “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’s lost without construction the loss as well and he …show more content…
thought perhaps the child had known this better than he.” (129-130) By remembering the past, the protagonist feels he’s altering his memories of it, so he tries not to recall too much in order to preserve it.Further analysis. The setting of the novel is so terrible that the protagonist really needs the fabric of the past. The Road presents memory and the past as an unavoidable conundrum; even though memory connects the man to beauty and goodness, it reminds him of the things that no longer exist. Memory is a double-ended sword, by trying not to remember the past and its beauty there are sometimes where the protagonist needs that beauty to keep moving forward. “ The world shrinking down about a raw core of pursuable entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than we would have though. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of this referents and so of its reality.” (75) The post-apocalyptic world implies from the quote that the world has been reduced to the basic necessary things where complexity is luxury. Sophisticated aspects of humans have been destroyed, and the names of such things are slowly being forgotten as well by the remaining people, and themselves soon into oblivion. Everything is lost. Maybe it includes the burden to hope, or to feel empathy, love, and altruism. Too easily lost in the new reality like principles and the words that signify them are forgotten and lost in the past. Memory is a double-ended sword by trying not to lie to the child of what the past was, the man is already forgetting. But in the brief moments of recollection is joy and happiness and when the memory ends he is left in the cold and horror of the new memories of the world. Even remembering is harder now in the new reality forgetting the delicacies that once were important to everyday life are now irrelevant. Memory of Death There is nothing we can say that will ease the pain of losing one you love. When Cormac McCarthy finally introduces The Mother it’s in the harshest of ways, making it hard to like her, but also relatable.
“The one thing i can tell you is that you won't survive for yourself. i know because i would never have come this far. A person who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost. Breathe it into being and coax it along with words of love. Offer it each phantom crumb and shield it from harm with your body” (49) A parent's instinct to care for its child is unbreakable, but in this situation it's hard to give a child the nutrition and love it needs when the world is barren and demolished. Overwhelmed by desperation and a hopeless situation, the boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the collapse of sanity,commits suicide some time before the story begins; the rationality and calmness of her act being her last "great gift" to the man and the boy. The father coughs blood every morning and realizes he’s dying, and still struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation. The revolver they carry,for protection or suicide if necessary, has only one round for much of the story. The boy has been told to use it on himself if capture is imminent, to spare himself the horror of death at the hands of the cannibals. With the struggle of the dying father comes the strife of the boy and his life, his life without a father in the apocalyptic world. Along with not having a father to trudge …show more content…
along the road, before the father dies the boy’s innocence depletes trying to take care, and understand “You’re not the one who has to worry about everything The boy said something but he couldn’t understand him. What? he said He looked up, his wet grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one.” (218) The man occasionally thinks of his son as a “godly product.” Even as he tries to protect the boy and ensure his survival is carried out with religious sincerity and described in religious terms.
The boy does realize that the world's humanity does depend on his own survival, since he metaphorically carries the fire. He is the new generation that might lead to a new civilization. If he has this role, he does have the weight of everything, on his shoulders. The man's notion of his son as a godlike, a figure that seems to be more than parental love, and the son has the hope to make this world worthwhile again. The memory of death is also like a double-ended sword as well, it's bittersweet especially if it's referring to the ones you love. When they are taken away from you, or wasting away in front of you it's the harshest memory of them all. Memory of God? Thinking about where your loved ones go or if where they go even exists, which the Man questions multiple times in the book. While the man is protecting his son, along the way they meet “bad guys” which the boy wanted know, maybe to try to change them to carry the fire or another innocent feature. "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 understand? Yes. He sat there cowled in the blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he
said. Yes. We're still the good guys." 65 This brief conversation demonstrates the depth of the man's love for his son, while revealing the son's growing concerns about their actions as the "good guys." The lines occur after the man has shot and killed the attacker who threatened the boy with a knife at his throat. The passage also has the underlying difference in mortality between the man and the boy. To the man, his killing is justified because it was an the act of saving his son, a responsibility he says (and may well believe) was assigned to him by God. The boy, however, is concerned about the nature of the act, regardless of the circumstances. He wonders whether, having murdered someone, they can still be considered the good guys. This seed of doubt is evident in the boy's mind, since he must ask the question at all, but the father unequivocally still considers them good, or at least wants to reassure his son that he feels that way, protecting his son at all costs. Forward into the lives of protection, the boy gets curious, wonders if it’s real, if it will save them, protect them. "Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground." 65 These lines call into question the existence of God or a higher power and of an afterlife. The actions of people on earth could or could not be witnessed or weighed by a higher power by those who have already lived and died. Indicating a person is the final judge of his own actions. Further, the narrator rejects any concept of a ledgerbook. Ledgerbooks and ideas about being watched and judged by others are the construct human complexes that artificially guide morals in an effort to explain or to oversee behavior. “A man must be a law unto himself if there is to be any law at all.” And by calling upon "fathers" instead of "mothers" or "ancestors" McCarthy emphasizes the paternal theme in The Road. Even though the man refuses to think about there being a God, he still has some hope in the back of his mind that someone is hearing his prayers and trying to help him throughout him and his son’s journey on the road.
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
It’s the year 2028, and the world we used to know as bright and beautiful is no longer thriving with light. A disease similar to the plague broke out and caused great havoc. Although it may seem like forever ago, sickness spread only a few years ago. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a man and his son who fortunately survived this sickness; although they made it, the struggle to keep going is tough. Before most of the population became deceased, people went insane. They started to bomb houses, burn down businesses and towns, and destroy the environment. Anyone who had the disease was bad blood. Many saw it as the end of the world, which in many cases was true.
When the man and boy meet people on the road, the boy has sympathy for them, but his father is more concerned with keeping them both alive. The boy is able to get his father to show kindness to the strangers (McCarthy), however reluctantly the kindness is given. The boy’s main concern is to be a good guy. Being the good guy is one of the major reasons the boy has for continuing down the road with his father. He does not see there is much of a point to life if he is not helping other people. The boy wants to be sure he and his father help people and continue to carry the fire. The boy is the man’s strength and therefore courage, but the man does not know how the boy worries about him how the boy’s will to live depends so much on his
This story contains an almost equal balance of good and evil, though it also raises questions of what is truly good. It blurs the line between good and selfish or thoughtless. Characters’ actions sometimes appear impure, but in the long run, are good.
Although finding food was a struggle for them, the man always put the boy’s health before his. The man made sure the boys thirst and hunger was always gone and that he had food to eat and drinks to drink. “He took the can and sipped it and handed it back. You drink it, he said. Let's just sit here.” (Page 27). In this quote, the man gave the boy the last of the soda but the boy got upset that the man didn’t take any, so the man took a sip and proceeded to give it to the boy. This is important because the father knows that he’s thirsty and could kill for a drink, but he knows that this is the first and last soda the boy would ever get. “He'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim.” (Page 18). This quote shows us too that the man always made sure that the boy got the better part of the deal. The boy got to drink cocoa but the man just drank hot water. The father does this because he got to live through his childhood without this apocalyptic world but the boy only lived a few years that he really doesn’t remember. These quotes show paternal love because they explain how the father always puts the son before him. Through all of the actions the father takes, it shows us how much he really cares about the son, and that his son is his only hope and his fire for
It is often said that a dog is a man’s best friend. In Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Crossing, a deep affection and fondness are established between man and animal. In a particular excerpt from the novel, Cormac illustrates the protagonist’s sorrow that was prompted from the wolf’s tragic death. As blood stiffens his trousers, the main character seeks to overcome the cold weather and fatigue with hopes of finding the perfect burial site for the wolf. McCarthy uses detailed descriptions and terminology in his novel, The Crossing, to convey the impact of the wolf’s death on the protagonist, a sad experience incorporated with religious allusions and made unique by the main character’s point of view.
The Road, a post-apocalyptic, survival skills fiction book written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006 is part of the Oprah Winfrey book club. During an interview with Oprah, McCarthy answered questions about The Road that he had never been asked before because pervious to the interview he had never been interviewed. Oprah asked what inspired the heart breaking book; it turns out that McCarthy wrote the book after taking a vacation with his son John. While on the vacation he imagined the world fifty years later and seen fire in the distant hills. After the book was finished, McCarthy dedicated it to his son, John. Throughout the book McCarthy included things that he knows he and his son would do and conversations that he thinks they may have had. (Cormac). Some question if the book is worth reading for college course writing classes because of the amount of common writing “rule breaks”. After reading and doing assignments to go along with The Road, I strongly believe that the novel should be required for more college courses such as Writing and Rhetoric II. McCarthy wrote the book in a way to force readers to get out of their comfort zones; the book has a great storyline; so doing the assignments are fairly easy, and embedded in the book are several brilliant survival tactics.
...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.
The author shows how the feelings of each character affects the story. The sentiment of the father throughout the story is his selfishness. He doesn’t care much about other people
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
The boy comprehends the severity of the situations he is faced with, such as lack of food or water, and treats his father with the same respect and equality that the man gives him. He insists on sharing his portions with his father when they are uneven, and he remains cautious at all times, even when his father is not. The boy’s fire is fueled by his love for his father, which is shown by the boy’s priority on caring for his father’s wellbeing, just as the man does for him. This love and responsibility, manifesting in the form of self-sacrifice and compassion, lies in direct juxtaposition to the rest of the world, where selfishness and indifference reigns
“‘Do you wonder, ever, if you 're a bad man?’ ‘No. I don 't wonder, Marty. World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.’”
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 ...
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.
...n the grasping of the past. Through the contrasting perceptions of victims, Hamid successfully portrays how neither the country nor characters can resist the changes that occur in the dynamic cycle of life. At one end of the spectrum are America and Erica who’re depicted as candidates of extreme nostalgia; embarking to recreate past memories as a result of the unpleasant predicament of the present. On the opposite end lies Jim, who possesses the ability to embrace and adapt to change in a favorable manner, using his past as a catalyst for future success. Changez on the contrary lies seemingly in the middle – aware of the addictive nature of nostalgia yet unable to withhold its pull and let go of past traditions. Combining all the aspects mentioned Hamid was able to skillfully create a story that depicts the dangers of submerging in the past and its traditions.