Richard Flanagan 's The Narrow Road

The Road, a post apocalyptic novel,written by Cormac McCarthy, tells the story of a father and son traveling along the cold, barren and ash ridden interstate highways of America. Pushing all their worldly possessions in a shopping cart, they struggle to survive. Faced with despair, suicide and cannibalism, the father and son show a deep loving and caring that keeps them going through unimaginable horrors. Through the setting of a post apocalyptic society, McCarthy demonstrates the psychological effects of isolation and the need to survive and how these effects affect the relationships of the last few people on Earth.

Currently there is six million Natives living in between the United States and Canada, and only "25,000 Blackfoot Indians between the two countries"(Reddish). In the short story "Borders" by Thomas King, the treatment of natives is shown to light in a common practice. While trying to cross the United States-Canada border to visit her oldest daughter in Salt Lake City, Utah, a woman and her youngest son, of Blackfoot Indian decent, are stopped at the border. She is questioned about her nationality and calmly states "I am Blackfoot, neither American or Canadian"(King, 918). She is not allowed to enter the United States nor Canada and is stuck in a neutral zone. News channels and Newspapers cover this story as the bureaucratic dilemma ensued, many people were shocked with the treatment of Native Americans. They are eventually allowed to pass through to the United States, however this leaves many people wondering about the treatment of Natives Americans, which King displays through conflict.

Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Last Crossing is a Western of subtly crossed borders. Vanderhaeghe elicits a sense of blurred lines between opposites, giving the illusion that boundaries are not so statically fixed. The historical figure Jerry Potts illustrates that the division between Indigenous and white is not so easily distinguished by ways of appearances, languages, and relations. The lines of health and illness intertwine as the reader follows Addington’s syphilis, Custis’ mystery ailment, and the Indigenous peoples’ struggle with smallpox. Justice, punishment, and the law become subjective in the novel with regards to Madge’s death, Addington’s military massacre, and Indigenous resistance against unfair treatment. Distinctions between

Reading the book, The Other Side of the River, by Alex Kotlowitz, the author writes about the relationship between two towns in Michigan, and the death of a young boy named Eric McGinnis. The two towns, Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, are called the “Twin Cities”, but are ironically not related in any way. St. Joseph is 95 percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and is 92 percent black. Throughout the book Kotlowitz questions the residents from both towns and how they are affected by the environment around them. The author also starts with the climax on the first page of the book – the death of Eric, and uses this as an technique to tell the story of the disagreements between the two towns.

The book, “The Devil’s Highway,” by Luis Alberto Urrea tells of the story of a group of men who tried to get to the United States using this long and dangerous pathway. While this book was written in 2005, some of the problems mentioned in the book still go on today, as do their reasons for taking part in this dangerous journey. This book opens up people’s eyes to what people will do for even just a little glimpse of something better, something that they can be happy with. Urrea’s telling of these men’s story relates to many things and teaches us how things are in places a lot of people in America don’t pay attention to.

The Gulf Between was wrote by Andre Siegfried. It had a big purpose during the time it was written. The Gulf between was created to talk about the “new society” that America has created. Siegfried was a Frenchman who has been to America numerous times, and made the comment that the life in America has changed. The Gulf Between tells the reasons why American society has been changing and why they are now in a new society. The audience for this section of the book could be for European natives, American natives, history majors, or anyone who is wanting to learn about American and their new society.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy details a post-apocalyptic world with mysterious origins. While there are many questions about this world, the reader is left to their own imagination to determine how it got that way. Within this world, there is a man and a boy, father and son trying to make their way and survive until they can find a safe haven that may or may not exist. The see many things along the way and the man instills in the boy that it is important to remain a good guy and always “carry the fire”. Carrying the fire refers to the light inside of you that makes you who you are and may also carry the “goodness” of human nature. Inevitably, the man meets his fate via a mysterious illness leaving the boy on his own. The boy is then introduced to a family that has been following them knowing that the man was not well and the boy would need someone to look after him.

In Eric Foner’s, The Fiery Trail: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, is a biographical look at Abraham Lincolns life from when he was growing up in Kentucky all the way until his unfortunate demise as President. In this book, the authors view on the historical events that occurred during the 16th president’s life time are expressed and Lincoln’s changing view on slavery throughout his life time.

In the middle of her struggle, Moody offers insights and correctives to some common interpretations of down south black involvement. They believed that since the black churches were focal points of the community’s beliefs and social groups that they were also in the front position during the first occurrence of racial discrimination. Although, for Moody’s experience, this was not true, well at least in Centreville and the rest of Wilkinson

Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Last Crossing is a Western of subtly crossed borders. Vanderhaeghe elicits a sense of blurred lines between opposites, giving the illusion that boundaries are not so statically fixed. Vanderhaeghe creates an underlying fluidity of social and cultural connotations and the essence of well-being. The Metis disestablish the distinction between Indigenous and white through appearances, languages, and relations. Addington’s syphilis, Custis’ mystery ailment, and the Indigenous peoples’ struggle with smallpox draws the conclusion that health and illness are not opposites. Madge’s death, Addington’s military massacre, and Indigenous resistance against unfair treatment prove that justice is not equivalent to the law. Lucy Stoveall’s paranormal abilities, Simon and Addington’s dreams, and the land of the dead exposes the openness of interpretation and the inconsistency of the natural world. The Last Crossing fights the illusion that concepts are resilient. Within the novel Vanderhaeghe affirms the flexibility of health, law, nature and culture with their opposites.

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.

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.

Each story is unique in their own way. For each piece of literature, a name is to be branded for the piece of work. Titles are more often than none looked over, the reader anxious to flip through the pages of words. However, for some pieces of literature, the title of the story is the most fundamental part of the process in trying to understand a story.

Flanagan represents love as a powerful force that can drive and shape behaviour of others; for it is through love and admiration that society can shape and define people. I am shown how love can both be a power for greatness, but also a power for evil and destruction, “the fantasy of love is that it is force for good but it can also be a terrible force for destruction and for sadness as well.” (Flanagan, “Richard Flanagan’s”) Flanagan’s words on the power of love and the duality of love for both good and evil is highlighted through the life of Dorrigo Evans and also through Nakamura’s struggle on the railway. As Romy Ash of The Guardian said “the capabilities of the human spirit: for the creation of both exquisite beauty… and for the creation of terror, the atrocity that was the Burma death railway” (Ash…), the novel shows the way in which great beauty and horror can both be created by society and fostered and developed in people. It is through his love for his men that Dorrigo can become something