Literature has always been a medium to express writer’s concerns; in her award winning book The Handmaids Tale Margaret Atwood warns of the instability in our patriarchal society, likewise Cormac McCarthy in his acclaimed book The Road also gives a warning; that of the fragility of human nature. Using the setting of hostile, post-apocalyptic America these authors explore what happens to both individuals and the wider society when rights and basic human necessities are taken away. Atwood creates the patriarchal dystopia, Gilead, which strips women of their identity and through her protagonist, Offred, she explores a society where human instinct is forcibly suppressed, but cannot be completely stifled. McCarthy on the other hand shows humanity which has not yet rebuilt itself and because of this basic human existence is a fight and the man’s survival is a constant battle throughout the novel. Using hostile environments as well as symbolism, metaphor and characterisation the two authors reveal their ideas about identity and, subsequently, human nature. In both texts the authors explore identity, revealed through the harsh and hostile setting. McCarthy’s fragmented and sparse writing reflects the barren and bleak landscape ‘With the first gray light he rose and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country. Barren, silent, godless,’ the simplicity of his writing replicates the emptiness of the landscape and basic need to survive which is now all that underpins the
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road portrays a gripping tale of survival of a father and son across a post-apocalyptic world that is devoured by marauders and cannibals who have abandoned all of their beliefs, morals and values and do anything to survive. In contrast, the two protagonists are portrayed as the ‘good guys’ who carry the ‘fire’, and try to survive in the obliterated world. They are challenged to maintain their own beliefs, morals and values as they enter their quest. As a young adolescent who has witnessed the harsh environments of a war torn country such as Afghanistan, and has prior experiences of being a refugee. The novel effectively
Violence is defined as a behavior involving physical or mental force intending to hurt, damage, or kill someone. In the words of Zak Ibrahim, peace is defined as the proliferation or the increase in the existence of Justice. But where does love fit in to these conversations? Violence cannot necessarily transform into love, but the presence of it is surely important. Violence involving our most loved ones, helps us find love and compassion in the toughest of situations, and leads us toward paths of peace. In this essay, examples will be drawn from Zak Ibrahim 's keynote presentation, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Beautiful Boy; a film directed by Shawn Ku, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut.
Currently, it seems that popular literature is filled with post-apocalyptic novels. These books sometimes venture into the fantasy and sci-fi genres, but always they portray the author’s idea of what humanity could look like after the world as we know it has ended. More importantly, they serve as mirrors for the vices currently plaguing society, demonstrating how these faults metastasize into major forces of evil when placed in the context of desperate circumstances. The Road, Cormac McCarthy’s harrowing description of a father-son pair slogging through the desolation of an unknown apocalypse, is no exception. McCarthy sets himself apart by emphasizing the nature of good and evil, utilizing flawless prose, and relentlessly confronting the reader with the inescapability of mortality. Truly, The Road is a brutally honest commentary on humanity’s capacity for cruelty and the never-ending struggle towards goodness.
An explanatory synthesis writing refers to an essay written from two or more sources. The essays usually have a common topic. When writing an explanatory synthesis essay, one must not argue a specific point. Instead, one should present the points in a coherent, objective manner. In addition, one must explain the points presented while synthesizing the major connections of the major points presented by the sources.
While the internal struggle to follow our own moral compass is always present, The Road, illuminates that this struggle becomes hyperbolic when we our basic necessities are depleted. The post-apocalyptic scenario presented within McCarthy’s, The Road, explores a new sense of morality amidst a time of starvation, dehydration, and immanent danger. Our moral agents, the man and the boy, have made the
Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, is a remarkably polarizing piece of literature. This book masterfully introduces a variety of brutal, painful narratives designed to optimize the reader’s connection to the overall themes of suffering and hopelessness. However, what is not often talked about is McCarthy’s careful placement of beauty and hope among the book’s bleak, dark atmosphere. The Road displays how beauty and brutality will always coexist, and despite the oppressive darkness of the world, hope can always be found. The relationship between beauty and brutality is seen on multiple occasions throughout this book, consistently illuminating the idea of hope in the midst of suffering.
In each novel of his personal literary journey, Cormac McCarthy examines death and God in different ways. Edwin T. Arnold, who wrote his essay “Blood and Grace: The Fiction of Cormac McCarthy” before The Road, examines how “McCarthy’s protagonists are most often those who, in their travels, are bereft of the voice of God and yet yearn to hear him speak” (14). In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the father explicitly describes his son as god; however, by juxtaposing the father and the son and examining their divine resemblances, it is not the boy but the man who embodies God, supporting Ely’s claim that this post-apocalyptic world is too harsh for God to exist.
In Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, he sets a young unnamed boy and his ill father down a desolate and unforgiving road. On this journey, the man cares for the boy as best as he knows how, taking him through a “barren, silent, and godless” world. The setbacks they face help to demonstrate the theme that a parent will do anything to benefit and protect a child where they must experience many hardships such as cannibalism, psychological torment, illness, and malnourishment. These setbacks help to illustrate the theme that a parent should do anything to benefit and protect a child. The man's love for the boy is also seen when he gives him the cocoa and soon after when the man gives the boy Coke-Cola trying to give the boy
The Road is a story where is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the date and location is unnamed. The author of the novel Cormac McCarthy doesn 't describe why or how the disaster has demolish the earth. But after reading the novel, I can sense that the author wanted to present a case of mystery and fear to the unknown to the reader. By the author 's exclusion I think that the story gains a better understanding of what the author wanted to express to the reader. An expression of a man and his son surviving in a post-apocalyptic setting.
In the novel, The Road, Cormac McCarthy illustrates the expressions, settings and the actions by various literary devices and the protagonist’s struggle to survive in the civilization full of darkness and inhumanity. The theme between a father and a son is appearing, giving both the characters the role of protagonist. Survival, hope, humanity, the power of the good and bad, the power of religion can be seen throughout the novel in different writing techniques. He symbolizes the end of the civilization or what the world had turned out to be as “The Cannibals”. The novel presents the readers with events that exemplify the events that make unexpected catastrophe so dangerous and violent. The novel reduces all human and natural life to the
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.
Civilization is the basis of life, driving human interaction in everyday life. The texts, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, depict civilized and uncivilized situations, which reflect on and elaborate characterization. This can be seen explicitly with the creature (Frankenstein) and the boy (The Road). Both novels address the civilized and uncivilized in different approaches, however similarly emphasize the significance of the character’s traits and development. The ways that each character approaches civilized and uncivilized situations and behaviours, relate to the character’s experiences and emotions directly in the case of the creature, contrary to the inverse relationship in the case of the boy. The
“The Road” depicts a solemn and deteriorating environment that can no longer provide the fundamentals to a society due to the nuclear disaster. The sudden depletion of the resources within their environment made it difficult for the father and the son to find sustenance. They were constantly traveling towards the South looking for safe places to situate themselves because the father knew that they would not be able to survive the nuclear winter. The genre of the novel is post-apocalyptic science fiction because it revolves around a dismantling society. Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” depicts how environmental destruction finally gave sense for people to value the world and what it had to offer.
Many people theorize that this bleak, dark story may not be what it appears on the surface. Many people believe that the story represents something much more. In 2006, McCarthy sat down for a rare interview with Oprah Winfrey. In that interview, McCarthy described the novel as a love story to his son. While this is straight from the author’s mouth, this has not stopped many readers from theorizing what McCarthy was trying to convey in his dystopian novel.The following is one of those theories for your consideration.
For ages, people have been debating the idea of human morality and whether or not at its core humanity is good or bad. This philosophy is explored in Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. The road is the story of a man and boy living in a post-apocalyptic world. Some cataclysmic event has crippled Earth’s natural ecosystem, leaving the skies engulfed in ash and the ground devoid of much life. The duo aim to journey south as a way to escape being frozen to death in the oncoming winter. During their journey, the boy and man come across different people and places that give them a better understand of what humanity has become and where they stand on that spectrum. Throughout The Road, McCarthy revisits the idea of being the “good guy” when there is no longer a need to, “carrying the fire” as it’s detailed in the book. The dichotomy between the boy’s moral conscience and the man’s selfish ideals helps develop McCarthy’s idea of humanity losing its selflessness in the face of danger.