When an individual embarks on a journey, they experience a diversity of situations ranging from moments of desperation, unease, or anguish to moments of pure joy, relief, or contentment. In the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a father and son travel along the unpredictable road, battling to survive the harsh weather and scarce food supply, as well as avoid any threats that could potentially do them harm. Throughout their journey, the father and son refer to themselves as “the good guys” and that they “carry the fire”. However as the father is on his deathbed, he reveals that the boy was the one that had always carried the fire inside of him, referring to the boy’s compassionate pleas and persistence during their travels.
“The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle,” (McCarthy 129). In the book The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, a father and a boy are traveling towards what they hope is survival. They are in a post-apocalyptic world where all is lost.
This work brought to my attention that when placed in a situation that would test one’s morals, humans show the capacity to display both goodness and depravity. Throughout the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, there are many acts of pure wickedness while on the other hand there are instances where great beauty appears.
Throughout the novel “The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it displays the tale of survival, a world infested with murder, crime, and despair. However, the author conveys that although cruelty may arise in the world, love overcomes violence and that humanity has not been completely lost. Within the book, violence is shown in a great depth, thus because humans are thrown into a world filled with thievery, murder, and cannibalism as the result of a post-apocalyptic landscape. Despite the crimes that occur, altruism has been explored within the novel. Altruism is best described as the “willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in disadvantage for yourself” (Dictionary Cambridge, 2017) Furthermore, two lessons that McCarthy conveys to his readers is that although one may help
“He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (McCarthy, 5). Throughout The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, the young boy is repeatedly seen as a Christ-like symbol to the man; a sign of hope and good morality. While the man is more occupied with finding food and fending for him and the boy, the boy is much more concerned over other people and their survival. The boy wants to consistently make sure him and his father are still “carrying the fire” and that they’re the “good guys.”
In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, the father ultimately sacrifices himself because he knows he taught his son well and believes in him to live a better life than dragging him along when he’s on the verge of death. The true reason he sacrifices so many things is only so his son has a better life than he does. If it wasn’t for his son, he wouldn’t have the strength to continue on the moving journey to the South for as long as he did. Through every sacrifice the father makes, it strengthens the son and gives him more hope to live and fight even when there is hardly anything left in the world. By the father sacrificing everything he has including food, warmth, and protection it shows the love for his son, and he only does
This excerpt from The Road by Cormac McCarthy makes the notion that life must go one, but it will be a struggle. The city itself is corroding and the whole world is depreciating. People need to do anything they can to survive. McCarthy makes the feeling of tension very prominent. She does by her use of diction to make a depressing and ominous tone.
“The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy, is undoubtedly an extremely sad and depressing story. It explores how the destruction of civilization might bring out the evil in men and how our morals might disappear if we find ourselves in a place where there is no one or nothing to stop us. However, it also shows the good in humanity (Specifically with the boy). How even through all the evil, there would still be people that were inherently good. The question is, does this book paint an overall positive or negative view of humanity?
hildren are often referred to as the future, but what would they be considered in a world that's crumbling down to its core? People consider children to be the next great minds because they have a fresh set of eyes; kids can see the world in an entirely new lens and fix it for the better. People desperately rely on the innovation of children to solve the problems that previous generations made, but there must be point where that will not be enough anymore. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the author depicts the journey of a man and his son in a world that is far beyond saving. From the man’s perspective, the only point of living is for the boy, but for the boy, it’s much more than that.
Is it possible that Freedom is something that can be given? No, freedom is not given, it is a right. America, the beautiful, a country that practices freedom, equality, and liberty as a right. America is a first world country that strives for development and prosperity. It is a world where miracle and magic occurs through hardwork and perseverance. As a result, America is represented in many artistic projects: poems, films, novels, etc. For instance, the two authors Cormac McCarthy, The Road, and Jack Kerouac, On The Road, implement the theme of America in their novel. As a result, the two novels critique America, praise America, and supports the American Dream. In addition, America’s culture and society is revealed through the two novels’ theme, road.
Home is defined as a dwelling place together with the family; an environment offering security and happiness. Cormac McCarthy in The Road develops this love and passion using the man and the boy’s relationship. Throughout the novel the boy and the man don’t have a real home, moving constantly. Ultimately their version of home is not just a typical building they merely live in. However, they do find their home within each other and it takes a toll on who they are and who they become in the end of the novel.
The Road movie was an alright adaptation of the book by Cormac McCarthy. The movie had great moments that brought it to life but it also had things that would have fit better if it was done differently. For instance, The added scenes, like the piano, was a nice touch. Also, the scenery was very well thought out as well. Although, the casting wasn’t the best it could be. First of all, There were a lot of motifs in the movie but the one that caught my eye was the piano.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is his post-apocalyptic magnus opus which combines a riveting plot along with an unconventional prose style. Released in 2006, the novel has won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award (Wilson). Oprah Winfrey also selected the book for her book club ("Cormac McCarthy”). The author, Cormac McCarthy, was born in 1933 in Rhode Island and is said to have wrote the novel because of his son and their relationship. The Road centers around a boy and his father while they try to survive after an unknown disaster occurs. While some people may argue that the unusual style takes away from the novel, it adds to the tone and meaning of the work.
Cormac McCarthy’s writing of The Road is an apocalyptic writing that foreshadows the destruction of the world as we know it. The man and the son are continuously on the move, but their destination is unknown. The south represents a safe haven, or second chance for the family to find safety and comfort from the harsh winter to come. In the test Exploring Literature, a symbol is defined as “In literature, a person, place, or thing that suggest more than its literal meaning. Symbols generally do not “stand for: any single meaning, nor for anything absolutely definite; they point, they hint” (Kennedy 203). Symbolism plays a key role throughout the novel, from the bunker they found on an old farm to the different people the father and son came across throughout their journey to the south. The gun was a major symbol that was carried on through the novel. What I believe the meaning behind the gun was the symbol of life and death. Through the father’s eyes, he sees the gun as a way to protect his family, but also he knows it was a way to leave this wretched life behind. For the son, he views the gun as something that kills people or a way to control someone to do an immoral act. The opposing views of the man and son created tension that built throughout the novel, whenever the father held a person at gunpoint the son would beg for the person’s life. The son saw the evil that the gun created and the poor decisions his father made when the gun was in his hands. The gun represents
Composers often shape their work around the prism of their own experiences to allow the audience to understand the composer 's perception of the world. To achieve this they employ the use of various language techniques, as seen in The Road (Cormac McCarthy), City Of Glass (Paul Auster) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick).
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is bleak, nothing more and nothing less. To put it simply, the world has fallen apart, civilization is no more and everyone is surviving by any means necessary. Despite this depressing setting, McCarthy beautifully describes what the characters are seeing, like a broken down trailer blocking a bridge that’s filled with rotting corpses or a conversation between a man and his wife where the wife admits to have taken on a “new lover”. These scenes are far from typical beauty, one will quickly notice a lack of colors and an excess of muted browns and dull grays. Colors are a rare treat in the gray bleakness that is The Road, their appearance marks the beginning of a brief period of hope before fading into the sea of cold gray ash.