Riley Braun, Caleb Godard, Hannah Jonesia, Garrett Leeson
Miss Burton
Pre-AP English 2
September 9, 2015
Necessary Evil
Words That Give Direction: Support, Refute, Qualify
Important Words: Support, Belief support: experienced father, naive/innocent boy belief: state in thesis
Thesis: In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the idea that someone cannot experience goodness before they discover evil is strengthened by the dynamic between the cautious father and the naive and innocent nature of the boy.
Paragraph 1: father’s struggle with morality
CD1: “fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from a hole in his head,”
CD2: “the boy crying and looking back at the nude and slatlike creature standing there in the road and shivering and hugging himself”
Paragraph 2: boy’s compassion
CD1: “carrying the fire”
CD2: “I don’t want the gun.”
The idea that evil may be
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As the man faces choosing lesser evils in order to survive, he compliments the goodness found in his son, who instead of basing his actions off his own survival, he bases them off his innocent desire to be and do good, as he asks his father on several occasions after partaking in questionable acts if they are still “carrying the fire.” While his father is preoccupied with survival, he is focused on helping those survivors he sees around him in a naive hope to be the “good guy.” At one point, his father thinks death is right around the corner and tells his son to “take the gun,” but his son refuses saying, “I don’t want the gun,” (70.5-6). The boy only associates the gun with its ability to take life away, excluding the protection it gives him and his father, which- in his eyes -makes the gun a symbol of evil and destruction; something he wishes to be separate from. However, the boy takes the gun anyways, finally realizing that its “evil” is necessary in order to survive, so that he may continue to “carry the fire” of the “good
In his novel The Road Cormac McCarthy uses a post-apocalyptic setting to help broaden the debate over moral good and evil. Not only do the main characters in his novel display either good or evil in their actions, but so do the people they encounter on their journey. These encounters are shaped by the moral decisions each individual makes. In this novel’s setting it is hard to define good and evil, but the choices made can still be applied to a non-apocalyptic world. McCarthy uses the experiences of the main characters to demonstrate that no matter what the scenario good will overcome evil.
Cormac McCarthy’s brain child “The Road” is a postapocalyptic novel that illustrates the harsh reality of the world. This story serves as a truth that humans, when stripped of their humanity will take desperate measures in order to survive. The reader learns; however even when it seems all hope is lost good can still be found in the world. The son character of this story illuminates this philosophy. He is a foil of his father and shows how even a person never accustomed to the luxury of a normal life can still see goodness.
Cormac McCarthy adapts and changes traditional archetypes in his novel, “The Road” to support the theme of extreme skepticism interfering with basic everyday things, such as moving on from the past. McCarthy uses archetypes such as “The Innocent One”, “Good versus Bad”, “The Journey”, and “The Philosopher” to display to his audience the idea that these archetypes contribute to one of the woes of postmodernism -- extreme skepticism.
The search for justice is a common topic in many works of American literature. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the main characters are searching for a way to escape the immoral, demolished world they live in. The unnamed man and boy are the main characters of the novel; the man is the boy’s father. The man has made the purpose of his life to protect his son. Without his son, he would probably not be alive because of the conditions he has had to endure for years on end.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a father and his son trying to survive in a post- apocalyptic world. In the book, McCarthy sets up different themes and he constructs them through his choices in The Road. One theme McCarthy shows is that in a world of despair, we must choose to focus on the good things, we can focus on these good things only if we let ourselves do so.
Cormac McCarthy’s tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing, yet deeply personal work, published in 2006. A setting stripped of all natural life with a father and son as the sole survivors of a post nuclear holocaust. The Road is essentially an existential tale as the father and son have one focus: to survive and to attain some meaning in their lives. Without any cultural and economic influences, the father and son must carve out their existences from a world devoid of life. The only meaning that they have come from the paternal and filial love that they feel, the essence of the family and life.
The struggle between good and evil is essential in the post-apocalyptic world created by Cormac McCarthy in The Road. These opposing powers are present in each questioning of the boy for confirmation from the father that they’re the “good guys.” They’re present in each encounter with evil whether in the basement or on the road. On a few occasions in the book the boy struggles to perceive the separation between evil and self-protection for survival. In the beginning of the book evil seems to be the stronger force, but as the book continues good overcomes bad through morality and the unbreakable strength in the father-son relationship. The Road ultimately suggests that while evil exists, moral actions and unfaltering love will eventually overcome.
Julio Mera Professor Kloss EN206-C1 23 April 2015 Final Essay Rough Draft In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I didn’t expect the reading to have any type of religious context. However, in post-apocalyptic occurrences, religious contexts are usually used such as the Book of Revelation in the Bible, the prediction of how the world is going to end. Two readings that can connect to this novel when it comes to the apocalypse are Darkness by Lord Byron and “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” by Edgar Allan Poe.
Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road is a fantastic post apocalyptic novel that deals with changing the world for the better. In it Mccarthy shows the journey of a father and his son through a beaten up world. By doing so he symbolizes the change that needs to be made and how the son needs to carry the flame and bring out the good in humanity. ` To begin the novel The Road takes place on a very long and extrucionating road.
The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel, “The Road,” written by Cormac McCarthy, tells the heart-breaking story of a father and son who are forced to wander an endless road throughout apocalyptic North America. The story is filled with unforgiving weather that “cracks rocks” and human cannibals that rape and destroy anything, and anyone, they come across. The people throughout the story show that not is this a novel of despair but also one of unrelenting pain and hardship. The characters do not inspire hope but only remind us of our own desperation – this includes that actions of the man who wants only to protect his son and the general feeling of loss that seem to cover every page.
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
The boy 's father tells him "My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?" (McCarthy The Road) this sends such a powerful message about instinct, hope, and paternal love. These words so passionately from the lips of the father perfectly describes Cormac McCarthy 's story of The Road and the power a father 's love surpasses his morals and beliefs. In this story it will tell a tale of love throughout a terrifying journey of a father and his boy to find something to cling on to. They face horrible tragedy and despair along their journey to the south through a dreary wasteland they must learn to call home, but hold tight to their beliefs to stay as civil as possible through such horrific times. This essay will discuss the relationship between the father and son and what they struggled through to wind up stronger together than ever before, despite the world they are traveling in. Also describing the parental love and the power it holds over a person in any situation and how it may make the father question his morals in order to protect the son. McCarthy 's style shows so much emotion and he displays his prose writings with such detail that they need little else to move you. He has a way in his novels that can be dripping with
The novel The Road, written by author Cormac McCarthy, is a prime example of the extent that cruelty in human nature can reach. The novel follows the story of a man and his son travelling across a barren landscape after a post-apocalyptic event and the struggles that they encounter. This will be discussed by concentrating on theme, characterisation and setting.
As George Herbert once said, “One father is more than a hundred school masters”, signifying that a father can be exceedingly impactful on his child’s life. While some fathers are absent in their children’s lives, others take full responsibility in the development and maturation of their child. In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a father and son travel across the ruins of an apocalyptic world on “the road” that would lead them to the coast where conditions would be considerably safer. They relied solely on each other to survive. The indestructible bond between the father and son in the novel exemplifies the themes of good versus evil, hope, and perseverance, contributing to the work as a whole.
One thing that remains constant in the ever-changing world of Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel The Road is the relationship between The Man and The Boy. The father and son’s bond is extremely close, especially due to the isolation they face on The Road, but it is filled with love and endearment, like someone would expect any relationship between a father and son to be.