The Road - Cormac Mccarthy

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.

The Road: Love Papa and the boy only chose to live because they both still had one shred of hope; that the other was still alive. In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, love was very necessary in survival and happiness. A father and his son traveled the world together on foot, helping each other solve problems and making up for each other’s weaknesses. They barely ever fought, even through all of their hardships, demonstrating how much Papa and the boy loved each other. Love helped Papa and the boy keep moving forward even despite the hopelessness and violence surrounding them.

In the Road by Cormac McCarthy published in 2006 a man and a boy go through a post apostolic world trying to get south before the winter. Their main goal is survival and they will do whatever is needed to survive without showing compassion and just focus on their own survival. When things become their worst people will do whatever they need to do to protect themselves and their loved ones from the harm and danger that surrounds them even if it hurts other people they will do what they have to do. Survival is a theme shown throughout the book and that the man would do whatever he has to do to protect the boy and try to give him a better life. When it says “He watched the boy and he looked out through the trees toward the road.

To begin with, is how the father will do anything to keep the boy safe. Though there were many scenes that show the father protecting his son there was one that stood out. They confront a man that strayed too far from his group. The man took the boy hostage with a knife; “He dove and grabbed the boy… with the knife at his throat.” (66). “… leveled the pistol and fired…” (66). The father sees the danger his son is in and acts quickly, shooting the man. He was capable of shooting a man in front of his son in order to protect him.

Upon reading the book, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, readers may be shocked to see the way it is written. Cormac McCarthy’s style of writing differentiates from other famous authors. He does not use correct punctuations such as apostrophes for contraction words and quotation marks around dialogues or use correct sentence forms. His rhetorical mode makes it difficult for the readers to perceive it but there is a reason as to why he writes this way. The reason why his writing style is so different is because of the way his life influences it. Not only does his life influences his writing style, it also influences what happens in his novels. Everything that Cormac McCarthy writes in his books have a purpose. In order to understand McCarthy’s reason for writing so differently and the themes behind No Country for Old Men, the readers would also have to understand the writer’s life and the effect of its influences.

In both 1984 by George Orwell and The Road by Cormac McCarthy the characters draw hope and possibility from their relationships with each other. It is through these relationships that they are able to survive in their worlds that have been plagued by corruption and lack humanity. In his novel, The Road, Cormac McCarthy describes a setting stripped of almost all humanity in a disaster-torn world devoid of almost all human life. Yet despite the unfavourable setting in which the novel takes place, the characters are still able to find hope in each other.

However, the father has hope, and he carries the fire inside. He still tells bedtime stories, talks about God to his son and teaches him how to pray. He continues the human civilization by educating his son about religion and faith. In addition there are so many times that they are lucky enough to escape from danger. The father shot one cannibal and saved his son using his gun; they escaped from the cannibals’ house when they are almost about to be caught.

The boy is very warm-hearted and appears to struggle to understand that danger could occur at any moment, whilst his father knows a lot more about what some people, “the bad guys”, do in order to survive. It could be seen that the child is very naive and therefore trusts others more than his father. However his trust in others teaches his father a valuable lesson; that not everyone is a “bad guy”. For instance when the pair come across Ely, the father is wary about him but his son is adamant that they give him a tin of food. This shows to readers that the boy has faith unlike his father. Another example is when the son sees the little boy; he begs his father to go back and help him and asks if he can go with them. I believe that he wants to help others as

Willa Cather once said, “The end is nothing; the road is all.” It doesn't matter how things turn out, it's the journey that really matters. That's where you learn the most and are able to grow as a person. I agree with and respect this quote, because it reaches out to those who may be going through a rough time and are in need of comfort. This quotes shows us that through rocky times with ourselves, others, or life in general, that what matters most is not the result, but the road taken to where we are now.

Living in a post apocalyptic time period wreck one's life, particularly, when one is stripped of the most essential necessities. Such a scenario enormously influences the way an individual behaves, as well as the ability of an individual to differentiate right from wrong. However, goodness, companionship, faith, a moral sense and hope of surviving, can help one, to certain extent, to overcome hardship. Goodness preserves the morals and humanity in a society that seem lost. Companionship gives one love and support to survive for the other person in difficult times whereas faith is the driving force that keeps one going in a world that lacks purpose.

“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.

In the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, the theory of Existentialism can be easily seen through various key components. Existentialism is a philosophy that accentuates an individual’s existence as a free being who is entirely responsible for the choices they make. It questions the human existence and whether there is any purpose of living; it is a notion that declares that an individual must define their own meaning in life and attempt to make rational decisions while existing in an irrational universe (Crowell). Such existential concepts are showcased throughout the book as an unnamed father and son travel across the United States where an unclear cataclysm has occurred destroying almost all life on Earth. They are striving to survive in this world where murder, cannibalism and sex slavery have become the norm. They are faced with inhumane situations and barbaric people, forcing them to make crucial decisions. It is understandable that the father and the boy are undergoing an existential crisis when being placed in this post-apocalyptic world where they attempt to fulfill their ultimate goal of reaching safety by abiding by their morals and depending on their hope while questioning their faith in God.

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.

The sons character is a symbol of hope to the father throughout the novel. In the father’s perspective the son is almost described as holy, “if he is not the word of god. god never