Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate on the mind on the present moment. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a man and his son, who remain unnamed throughout the novel, are on a journey heading south after an unnamed catastrophe has struck the world. The conditions they face are unforgiving: rotting corpses, fires, abandoned towns and houses. The man and his son are among the few living creatures remaining on Earth who have not been driven to murder, rape, and cannibalism. Unfortunately, the father’s health worsens as they travel, and by the time they reach the ocean, he passes away. The boy remains by his side for days until the boy meets a kind family who invites him to join them. The boy must say goodbye to his father, …show more content…
So I could be with you” (McCarthy 10-11).
Here the boy means so much to the man that if the boy died he would “want to die too.” He would want to die because the boy is the only source of light and joy in his world, and if he died there would be nothing left in him to carry on.
Standing between boy and the man are the villain's. Most of the book is dark and grey with evil everywhere. Villain's in The Road can be described as cannibals, rapist, and murderers. The show no humanity, and only want to survive, even if it means eating other humans. In a conversation between the man and his wife, she states all the things the bad guys will do when they find them,
“No, I’m speaking the truth. They will kill is. They will rape me. They will rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it [...] we use to talk about death, she said. We don’t anymore why is that?”
“I don’t know”
“It’s because its here. Theres nothing left to talk about.” (McCarthy 29).
Here in a conversation between the man and his wife, she states all the horrific and gruesome things that the bad guy’s will do when they find them, Another example of how ruthless the bad guy’s are is when the man and the boy hide after they see bad guys carrying slaves on the
The boy’s mother will take the easy way out for herself so that she won’t have to fight through the pain. By taking her own life, she will leave the boy in the father’s hands. The boy misses his mother everyday
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.
"This time, they're really killing us, killing all girls and women. Killing us stealthily, in silence.
Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, is set sometime in the future after a global disaster in which tells a story of a nameless boy and father who both travel along a highway that stretches to the East coast. This post-apocalyptic novel shows the exposes of terrifying events such as cannibalism, starvation, and not surviving portraying the powerful act of the man protecting his son from all the events in which depicts Cormac McCarthy’s powerful theme of one person sacrificing or doing anything humanly possible for the one they love which generates the power of love.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father and son who are surrounded by an apocalyptic world where they are trying to survive. Many of McCarthy’s books are about negative or violent times like Blood Meridian and All The Pretty Horses. McCarthy enjoys writing about the terror in the real world. When writing literature, he avoids using commas and quotation marks.. Many works of literature have a plethora of themes throughout them, in The Road, the theme that sticks out the most is paternal love. The boy is the only thing that stands between the man and death. Aside from that, the father doesn’t kill anyone for food, he only takes the life of people who threaten the boy. Lastly, the man allows the boy have the last of their supplies, food,
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.
The man and the boy are always in search of food, and the lack of it in the winter times eventually leads to the man's death, since he sacrifices almost everything he can find for the wellness of his son.
A father and a son survives a cataclysmic event; the destruction of the world. They become homeless scavengers, hunting for food, looking for shelter, and following the one and only road to the coast where there might be a sign of hope. Cormac McCarthy tells us a post-apocalyptic epic. This breathtaking novel is a love story of a father and a son, which also depicts the human nature and how people can react in desperate times.
In the novel, the boy notices another little boy and a dog and wanted to give them some of his food because he was genuinely worried about them. However, the man did not let the boy give them any food because he knows that they were going to need it later. Regarding this, the passage also shows the contrast between the boy’s and the man’s mindset; the man is more concerned for their well-being, while the boy is concerned for everyone. I decided to analyze this quote because I felt that it was an important aspect to cover. I thought it was important because it introduces a recurring event, which is that they (the man and boy) should be helping others they see, rather than just letting them
This book was very interesting and pleasurable to read, I found myself intimately connecting with the characters. In some ways I found myself walking in “the man’s” shoes, not caring about humanity, and only protecting the one most precious to him (me). In some instances I also sided with “the boy” clinging to the hopes of a brighter world where there is still some purity in civilization. This novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a true masterpiece and I recommend it to anyone looking for a phenomenal read.
I have conflicting thought regarding Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. My initial thoughts of the novel were that it was solely built on the complete devastation of two characters lives and the surrounding landscape and their constant search for survival. However after giving it further insight I discovered the underlying messages of the importance of good and bad people in my life, the beauty of the little things in life and constant greed showed by desperate individuals. I believe the novels successes comes from the messages of the significant value of human life and the importance of memories in our lives.
The evil nature of this individual is made manifest, and thus evil enters the story in a significant way.
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...
In the Novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, survival becomes the biggest quest to life. The novel is set to be as a scene of isolation and banishment from people and places. The author uses the hidden woods as a set of isolation for the characters, in which creates the suspense of traveling to an unspecified destination near the shore. Cormac McCarthy creates a novel on the depth of an imaginative journey, which leads to a road of intensity and despair. The journey to move forward in an apocalyptic world transforms both of the main characters father and son tremendously as time progress. In particular, the boys’ isolation takes him from hope to torment, making him become fearful and imaginative. The images indicate that McCarthy’s post apocalyptic novel relies on images, particular verbal choices, and truthful evidence to how isolation affected the son emotionally and physically.
In The Man’s point of view that is only an option if The Boy is imminently harmed.This could be why whenever The Man is exploring potentially unsafe locations that he leaves the pistol with The Boy. In The Man and The Boy’s perspective they “each the other’s world entire”, because of The Man’s intense love for The Boy it gives him the will to persevere. As well as The Boy can be seen to be a remaining sign of god’s existence because he gives The Man aspirations for the future. In the beginning of the novel not much is said and you can describe their love as stark and silent but that is only due to their existence being survival from day to day. The statement “I love you” is never really said however it is implied, when given the opportunity The Man will show his love in other ways for example, giving The Boy the Coca-Cola. The Man will alway attempt to give The Boy “treats” when ever he has the chance. To The Boy he is frequently looking to The Man for faith, consolation and safety. In the desolate and weather-beaten world that they now live in The Man can only really show his love for The Boy out of remoteness of the hope and despair that he now