The Road Rhetorical Analysis

Stylistic Prose Techniques

1. Precise Diction
• Precise diction refers to the author’s choice of words throughout the work, emphasizing their main plot of the story.
• “Creedless shells of men…” (28).
• McCarthy uses precise diction to emphasize his plot and accentuate imagery throughout the novel. Creedless literally means without a creed, without any belief, without any faith. Shell portray that the men are simply empty, there is nothing inside the “shell”. This means that the men are empty, without any beliefs or hope, emphasizing how cold-hearted and inhumane these men are during the post-apocalyptic era.

2. Simile
• Similes are explicit comparisons of two different things, using “like” or “such as”.
• “The nights were blinding cold and

casket back… like a dawn before the battle”(129).
• McCarthy is comparing the cold and endless nights to the “dawn before the battle”, foreshadowing the internal, and external, battle between the characters and their surroundings.

3. Repetition
• The act of repeating a word phrase, sentence to emphasize a particular theme.
• “The soft ash blowing…”(4), “Dust and ash everywhere”(7), “shuffling through the ash” (60), “eternal ash”(80), “The snow…gray…a fresh fall of ash on it”(99), “…and bones under the damp ash might have been anonymous save for the shapes of the skulls”(150), “…it was blown free of ash save for patches here and there”(254), “boy thought he smelled wet ash on the wind”(278).
• In The Road, the repetition of ash is utilized to adequately portray the desolation, the bleak landscape, of the post-apocalyptic era in which this novel is set in. “Ash” contains a negative connotation, every time it is mentioned there is an eerie tone. The ash is everywhere - it cannot be escaped. However, the ash also contrasts with the association of the “good guys”, the father and the son, who carry the fire.

4. Selection of Detail
• Specific details that the author includes to accentuate the theme and/or plot.
• “He turned and looked again. What the boy had seen was a human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit” (198).
• The Road is known for its expected and intense brutality, but also for its depth of compassion and tenderness. Although this scene is extremely brutal, it has a compassionate meaning to it and it demonstrates the inhumanness of what is left of the society. The little infant represents innocence, and the fact that these people killed this baby and planned on eating it, represents the destruction of innocence in the society.

5. Syntax
• Author’s choice of sentence structure.
• “Ten thousand dreams ensepulchred within their crozzled hearts. They went on. Treading the dead world under like rats on a wheel. The night’s dead still and deader black. So cold. They talked hardly at all. He coughed all the time and the boy watched him spitting blood. Slumping along. Filthy, ragged, hopeless” (272).
• Throughout the novel, McCarthy uses particular syntax, which accentuates particular emotions and tones of scenes. As a theme throughout the novel, McCarthy writes long declarative sentences, followed by short declarative phrases, to convey an eerie, anxious, tone.
6. Narrative Pace
• Speed of the novel, utilized mostly for dramatization.
• “He stood in a living room partly burned and open to the sky. The waterbuckled boards sloping away into the yard. Soggy volumes in a bookcase… Everything damp. Rotting. In a drawer he found a candle. No way to light it”(129).
• As previously states, McCarthy utilizes a mixture of declarative sentences and declarative fragments, which set the tone for the novel but also set the pace.

Anticipation is prevalent throughout The Road, which is set by the narrative pace, creating a tense and suspenseful feeling and tone.

7. Tone
• Emotion and attitude that the author reveals through syntax, narrative pace, and characters. Tone influences a reader’s understanding of a novel.
• “The boy didn’t answer. The man watched him” (128).
• 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.

8. Imagery
• Diction used to paint a picture in the reader’s mind.
• “Long days. Open country with ash blowing over the road. The boy sat by the fire at night with the pieces of the map across his knees. He had the names of towns and rivers by heart and he measured their progress daily”

(214).
• McCarthy does a remarkable job utilizing precise diction to elicit a deteriorating image throughout The Road. The excerpt above creates an exhausted image, portraying the trials and tribulations of the father and son overcome on the never-ending, arduous journey.
9. Metaphor
• A deeper meaning to a word, sentence or phrase, representing an idea or meaning.
• “You have to carry the fire” (278).
• To carry the fire, means to carry hope. The “good guys” hold on to hope, hold on to humanity. The little boy in The Road is notorious for being the ideal portrayal of hope and love. As an optimist, the little boy constantly looks at the bright side of things and always tries to help others, even if he is in danger. For example, he pleaded for his father to spare the life and feed the old man who stole their cart on the beach, leaving them to die. In this novel, the “fire” symbolizes hope and the boy carries it. He is the only light in the inhumane world; he is the only one who has a heart in the heartless world.

10. Point of View
• The perspective, the narrative voice, of which the story is being told.
• “They came out along the rim of a deep gorge and far down in the darkness a river. They stood listening…cold wind...”(37).
• The Road is told from third person omniscient. Although it seems like the man is narrating the novel, the narration often pulls back and is told from someone above, a third party that is overlooking the situations but is not involved. This allows for freedom because McCarthy can transverse from one character to the other, give more details of a setting, creating a clearer image for the reader of the setting, plot and characters.

Reader Responses

1. The Road pages 1-71

Wow. If The Road were described as a color, it would be quite a few shades of grey. Ash… ASH EVERYWHERE! I’ve never read a post-apocalyptical novel, so this is definitely a change; so far, so good.
McCarthy is extremely descriptive. The first quarter of the book was hard to actually get into because it wasn’t action-packed. I usually prefer action-filled novels, but the descriptive diction and the imagery kept me intrigued, wanting to know what happens next. I grew an attachment to the characters during this first quarter of the book. I am sympathetic toward them, and compassionate. After I took a little reading break, I went inside and grabbed a snack. I started crying because all I wanted to do was feed the child and his father. This just exemplifies McCarthy’s skill, showing how he can make a reader become emotionally attached to a character.
I can’t believe the mother resorted to killing herself- leaving her family behind, giving up. The father is impeccably admirable because he took matters into his own hands, and decided to travel along the road. In the beginning of the novel, I was confused as to why the mother wasn’t present. But throughout the novel, the father would have flashbacks that would provide background information on what is happening, making the plot easier to understand. These flashbacks allowed for reader to dive into the man’s thoughts and memories, allowing us to see his perspective. Flashbacks also helped explain and affirm why the son was pleased with Coca-Cola, and why the father acted like it was a special scene. The son was born before the apocalypse, so he did not get to experience the things that others were able to.

2. The Road pages 72-142
As a reader who has never read an apocalyptical, my opinion has been swayed while reading this part of the novel. Although I enjoyed the first quarter of the novel, I thought it would be painful to read due to the gruesome and dark plot. But I love it now! I’m incredibly intrigued and I’m literally flying through the book, dying to know what happens next. I get exceptionally anxious when the father and son enter a house or shack, because I don’t want anything bad to happen to them!
The little boy in the novel is incredibly passionate and a symbol of the hope of rebuilding mankind.

He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional

book.
We also get to see how undoubtedly protective and determined the father is. He makes sure the little boy doesn’t starve to the point of death; he does everything in his power to help his son because “the boy was all that stood between him and death”. I admire him for his extraordinary strength in the face of various hardships, through starvation, weather and human predators. The father’s only motivational drive is his everlasting love for his one and only son. This novel is a love story, not between a man and a woman, but between a father and his son. Gah, just another reason as to why I’m attached to these characters – their love for one another is astonishingly inspiring.
3. The Road pages 143-217
Throughout this section of The Road, I felt as if I was on the journey with the father and son. The dark, detailed diction intrigues the reader into the setting as apart of the family. As for the little boy, is innocence and good-spirit continues to shine through, as he insists on feeding an old man on the road. Unfortunately, it becomes evident that the father’s health is slowly deteriorating as each day passes; however, he is still hanging and pushing forward for the sake of his son.
I CAN’T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD EAT A BABY! A LITTLE BABY!!!! I was disgusted and saddened because I love kids, and they should ALWAYS be protected and safe, never in the face of danger. This scene, where the father and son encounter “a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit”(198), displayed how corrupt and inhumane this post apocalyptical society actually is. I admire the father for striving to protect his son from things like these, fearing the little boy will be scarred for life, but unfortunately, no matter how lively one can be, inhumanness will prevail if it’s dominantly protuberant in a society.
I’m honestly just thankful I live in a lively society, in a happy and colorful world. I can’t imagine living in a dark, cold and depressing world where you have to fear for your life every minute of every single day like in The Road.
As they are approaching the coast, I can’t help to wonder what they’re going to discover. I’m rooting for their success but I feel as if they have false hope. There hasn’t been one positive encounter with a person, are there any “good guys” left? I really hope so because I just want the father and son to be happy and safe!
I’m definitively enjoying this novel, but there is no way I could read it again. It’s emotionally draining because I feel as if I’m connected to this family and apart of the journey.

4. The Road pages 218 - end

Wow…. Let me just say I was affected by the ending way more than I expected to be. I sobbed like a baby. I absolutely loved this novel and McCarthy’s writing style! But there is no way I could read it again. I feel emotionally and mentally drained just from reading about their journey – suspenseful, anxious, intriguing.
Although McCarthy foreshadowed the father’s death by including a “bloody cough”, I didn’t think he’d die so abruptly. What saddens me is that the little boy was expecting it, as he lied awake in the middle of the night, checking to hear his father’s gasping breath. I cried when the father died, but I cried even more when the little boy asked the rescuing family if they “carry the fire” as well.
Well, the coast scene was not what I expected. I thought they’d find some “good guys” and unite with them, but nothing except for the family that took in the little boy after the father died. I can’t believe they swam in the freezing sea, but I’m glad they found the ship that had many survival necessities.
My heart went out to the father when the little boy became sick after swimming in the freezing water. Although the father was suffering himself, he did everything he could to comfort the little boy. I just can’t get enough of the little boy! He is a little angel, the last hope of humanity left in that post-apocalyptical society. He wanted to help the man that stole from him and his father! How amazing is that? He doesn’t fully understand the dangers along the road but he is aware and cautious. I hope he will never have to fully understand either.
The final description of the trout was amazing. In that entire paragraph, positive and bright words such as amber and white, polished and muscular, stood out, beautifully putting an end to this novel. By the final paragraph, I can tell there is hope and something good coming in the near future. At least I hope, but you never know in a post-apocalyptical world.