Analysis Of The Journey Along The Road By Cormac Mccarthy

Imagine a world where the skies are grey and the ground is torn to pieces. Where there is no civilisation present, nor another human being to be seen. Where the feeling of hunger influences you to consider the idea of human flesh filling your insides and persuading you to do so. A world infested with murder, crime and despair- which have now become necessary for survival. Imagine the air thick with black clouds towering over your very essence and having to muddle through 10 feet of snow and a strong gust of wind. A world where all faith should be gone, but amiss all bad things, it continues to linger through the eyes of the youth. Being able to see the light when your surroundings are pitch black signifies that humanity has not been lost completely. Although, the man knows in his heart that death is inevitable and dangerously close, he continues to live for the sake of the boy whom he believes carries the final hope for humanity.

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy the father and the son overcomes nature’s obstacles by dealing with cannibals. The father and the son face many dangers and cannibals are one of the biggest. Throughout the book they encounter many sites of cannibalism. Such as the time when they come across what they thought was food but couldn’t really distinguish what it was until they took a closer look… “They walked into the little clearing, the boy clutching his hand… he looker quickly to see what had happened. What is it? He said. What is it? The boy shook his head. Oh Papa, he said. He turned and looked again. What the boy had seen was a charred human infant, headless and gutted and blackening on the spit,” (198). McCarthy depicted the absolutely worst social breakdown. The weakest and most helpless of human beings – an infant – was preyed upon. Like stated before, there are other violent images in the novel, but this one seemed important to state. It shows the extreme violence, hunger, and cannibalism that the novel created in one

Other than the boy the father has hope in very few things. But one thing which is shown throughout The Road is the father’s sense of morals. The father always reassures the boy and himself that they are the good guys which gives them the hope to keep persevere because they are, to the father, keeping goodness in the world alive, “carrying the flame.” Cormac McCarthy presents the cannibals as a lost hope in The Road. They are almost only referred to as the “bad guys” and are described as if they are animals with no hope other than to survive.

The man knew that these people were most likely dangerous, but he purposefully limits his view to the fact that they might have some sort of food. This example reveals how in this post-apocalyptic world, there is no such thing as complete safety, or true understanding. While the man is looking through the house, McCarthy writes “All things he saw and did not see”(McCarthy 109). The man is usually very cautious and takes every precaution someone in their situation could take. In their world they will never truly have full visibility of their future, it is all one big confusing maze.

In the novel “The Road’ Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a boy and his father in a post apocalyptic world. McCarthy uses many different things to create a real and terrifying view of this world. The way the book is written and the details that are added help show us the how truly dreadful the world is. It also creates an understanding of the awful condition the world is left in and the horrible state the survivors are in. Many passages throughout the book give a clear description of the world and the survivors. The novel shows the reality in a post apocalyptic world and gives a different take on the way people act and live.

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

From books and TV shows to movies and plays, the contrast between light and dark is found everywhere. Typically, light indicates something good while the dark is something to be feared and is bad. For example, most people have this notion that Heaven, which is an unquestionably excellent place, is all light while Hell, which is atrocious, is completely dark. Even little kids assume something bad is going to happen in the dark, but is they have a night light then everything will be okay. This premise carries over into literature, especially Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a boy and a man battle the unforgiving voyage of a world where an apocolypse has occoured. They leave everything they have to go and try to find some safety and refuge. The two battle to stay alive versing hunger, dehydration, and cannibalism. There are many points in the book where I didn’t think they were going to make it, where I thought they were going to just lay down and give up. Yet they don't give up at all, they keep going until they cannot go anymore.

The Road” by Cormac McCarthy reveals a character, who is nameless throughout the story, is the son of the father shown also. The boy is shown to be the only light to his father as the mother wasn't in the picture, she is presumably dead as she wanted to escape the post-apocalyptic world. The boy is shown to symbolize hope for the future with compassion and cooperation throughout the journey with his father. I can relate to the boy as in one example he helps convince his father to let Ely, an old man who they came upon while traveling, join them at dinner time. “We could cook something on the stove. He could eat with us,”(pg. 85) this quote portrays how the boy compassion was viewed to his father and gave him hope to keep going in the world.

The encounters and interactions the man and boy had while on the road help develop McCarthy’s larger theme of humanity losing its selflessness when it’s in danger. For example, while the man and the boy are traveling to the coast they come across a burnt man, half-dead lying in the road. After some observation, the boy asks the man if they could “help him” but is continuously shot down by his father who repeatedly tells him to “stop it” (McCarthy 50). The Road’s setting is one of the strongest over the weak, those who can’t survive for themselves they simply won’t. This burnt man, who was struck by lightning, is an example of that as he is now in no condition to scavenge for food and medical supplies and will probably just die where he currently sits. The boy, realizing this, wanted to do something to give the man even a small chance at survival, but the man knew he was a lost cause and should be left to die. The boy and his overwhelming desire to help the dying man is representative of old society and its pressure to help those with lesser than you, ideals that were result of religious codes and churches. But in a world where none of that matters or is present, the man is what humanity has become, selfish being whom only care about

The author uses light and dark imagery to show how Brave he is trying to be when the world around him is falling apart as shown in the quote “But do not let thy strength and courage fail”. He shows how it's okay to be worried in a frightening space when a lot goes wrong, because everyone has bravery hidden in them and it will come out when needed most. He also shows how facing your fears can be a really good thing sometimes. The act of bravery can really help face fears when all darkness will come over and try to take and haunt you.The author shows how even with bravery will eventually overtake darkness. Light and darkness contrast in the article and sho0w their different ways.

Light and dark are two forces which most authors would have their readers believe are locked in a never ending struggle. In almost every case, the light represents purity, order and goodness, while the dark represents hedonism, chaos, and evil. Such a formula is so prevalent in literature that the metaphor has been trite for hundreds of years. However, every cliché is an exciting literary opportunity, as it presents the possibility of subversion. Some of the most gratifying literary works take existing tropes, and distort them in a way the audience does not expect, allowing an author to powerfully assert their themes and ideas.

The short stories “Firelight” by Tobias Wolff and “Araby” by James Joyce both have characters that are drawn to the light and dark. The main character in “Firelight” reflects and dreams about his future in situation of the story and as well as “Araby”. The main character finds himself in a situation where the dark in what makes things clearer to him. Light and dark being a The focus for each character was the ending and how at the end of each short story each character sees the light and dark.

Throughout the novel, McCarthy illustrates the unconditional love the man has for the boy. This is depicted by the continuous sacrificing of necessities to keep the boy healthy and alive. McCarthy uses imagery to illustrate the hopelessness of the world and the daily struggle to stay alive by describing their living situation as “squatted on the road and ate cold rice and cold beans” (29). The use of the word “cold” has a negative connotation, showing the deprivation of luxuries and necessities of the world. The words “rice” and “beans” usually staple goods demonstrating the bare minimum they have to consume. The man internalizes the situation thinking, “So thin. My heart he said. My heart” (29). The syntax, specifically repetitive short sentences, demonstrates the everyday tension and grave society they are part of. This description also shows the love of the man towards the boy, which can be seen from the action of the man hugging the boy. Although they are struggling, the man overlooks these struggles, solely focused

In comparison with Jesus and the boy’s mission, both have the heart to bring life to the world. Jesus brought life to the world by dying , but the boy is bringing life to the dark world, by living. This parallel is also seen with the concept of darkness and light. According to the Oxford English dictionary “Darkness” can mean the absence of “light” meaning death. Also darkness can mean gloom of sorrow, trouble, or distress. Both of these definitions directly apply to The Road. Darkness is introduced as grayness in The Road and can be interpreted as the light fading away. The purpose of Jesus coming is to bring light to the dark world to save us from gloom and evil (John 10:46). In the same way, the boy can been seen as the light of this dark world as he has the notion of “carrying the fire”. With the technique of comparing the little boy to a Jesus figure, McCarthy establishes hope in the novel through the young boy who has know evil all his life. It creates importance to the theme of “God” as a whole since it manages to bring hope to the world through the little boy who is seen as a “god” like