The Longest Road: A Fictional Narrative

Barry couldn't believe that it was morning already, he went to sleep at 1 a.m because he stayed up binge watching his favorite show.“Barry wake up, it's 7:30!” Diana yelled as she rushed into her son's room. “Mom! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?, it's the first day of school!” was what came out Barry’s mouth although he knew that it was his fault like always. Barry stared at his alarm clock, which was completely silent, no noise or numbers reflecting off the screen to let Barry know that it was time to get ready for his first day of middle school. The day brightened considerably, the shadows were stretching in the opposite direction from what Barry had seen yesterday in his first day in New York. His father, Daniel, and Diana rush into the car since it was Daniel’s first day as well, at his new job in the famous World Trade Center. "Ready for your big day today champ?”, Barry didn't answer because of the memories that rushed through his brain of all his friends, teachers, and his grandpa.

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.

The book The Road Cormac McCarthy creates a darkened mood when he puts this son and father into a destroyed world. McCarthy created this concept of a world to intensify the meaning of the piece all together. This darkness in the world creates to fear and the isolation for characters to realize that this is how life is from now on. The son in this novel comes to the realization of the world due to certain events within the novel that manipulation the view the son has on the world.

Prometheus, a Titan in ancient Greek mythology, stole the fire from Zeus, the ruler of all Gods, and gave it to humanity, even when Zeus strictly told him not to. As punishment, Prometheus is bound to a rock. Every day, an eagle swoops in to eat his liver, but Prometheus does not die. His liver regenerates only to be eaten again the following day. Because Prometheus “carried the fire” to humanity, his days are forever filled with torture. Similar to the situation that appears in the Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, the main characters, a man and his son also “carry the fire” for the sake of mankind. “Carrying the fire”, a motif that Cormac McCarthy portrays throughout his novel, The Road, can be used to explain the reasoning behind why

In the 21st century people seem to have become more fixated on how the world is going to end than actually living in it. This is evident in the numerous post-apocalyptic dystopian bestsellers there have been recently. One of the most prominent of those is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Separating it from the flood of numerous other books in its genre McCarthy and The Road challenges existing motifs of post-apocalyptic literature. The Road uses these themes to focus on the central idea of good vs evil.

It was a calm, bright day when the bombs dropped on America. The entire nuclear arsenal, turned against us, as result of corruption in The White House. They say 65% of the population eradicated, the rest fighting for the food that wasn’t destroyed by the fires.

The Road is a grim book set in an even more grim place. With the fall of civilization, the struggle for the human race is to preserve what it means to be human and not to get caught up in surviving by any means necessary. The magic of The Road is that even in such a world filled with unspeakable violence and fulfilled taboo, the reader is never as far removed from the characters in the book. Through the use of the battle for humanity and taboo, the reader is connected to the book at an uncomfortably close distance.

Upon finishing Three Day Road I find myself in an almost state of shock from the concluding events of the story. This is due to the fact that I would not have guessed that Xavier would be the cause of Elijah’s death, especially under the circumstances in which Elijah was in turn attempting to kill Xavier. Moreover, this caused some disbelief on my end as the pair appeared to be the perfect friends from what we learnt starting from their relationship when they were kids. One can see this through how the two worked together and taught the other the information they were lacking. For instance, Elijah taught english and Xavier taught hunting. In addition to this, I personally feel that Three Day Road adequately represented the discrimination and

Amber started her morning the way she always did. She rolled over in bed to shut off her alarm clock that now shined a red light showing 9:38 a.m. Most would consider this sleeping in, but for Amber it was just another day. She got out of bed, slipped on her slippers and a sweater, and headed out the door to grab her morning coffee from a little shop down the street.

I grew up in a town called Cottage Grove Oregon. Many there worked in the timber industry. I come from a long line of loggers, road builders and log trainsmen. My grandfather, my father and my brother all worked their entire lives in the woods. I even worked in the timber industry for about eight years in a plant that made glulam beams. (Glued laminated timber beams) Growing up, on weekends we spent a lot of time out in the woods. Whether it was deer hunting, gathering fir cones to sell or cutting firewood; those are some of the most precious times with my family.

By the time his alarm clock chimes for the first time that morning, Ulric is already prepared to reach over and press the off button; he’s been up for hours, undoubtedly due to the sound of water, clinking, and mumbled curses coming from the kitchen downstairs. It’d started quietly enough – like a proper guest trying to stay quiet for the sake of their host – but now Benard seems to have no qualms about being as annoying as physically and emotionally possible this morning. Thank god Oakley hadn’t woken up yet, because the man of the house was definitely not going to tolerate being woken up at 5 A.M. on a Saturday. Hair tangled into messy loose curls, and gunmetal eyes shadowed by exhaustion, he slowly trudges down the hall and down the stairs, making sure to hold tightly onto the railing.

The road was an endless sea of cars as I looked over the overwhelming amount of traffic. It was a hazy night, but not enough to interfere with a driver’s ability to see or drive. Of course, that’s only in my opinion, seeing I had fairly good eyesight and was completely awake.

Josh woke up to his mom calling him down for breakfast. It was Thursday , which meant he had school, which meant he had to face Woodfork.“Honey,” his mom called, “the bus leaves in five minutes.” Josh threw on some clothes, ran downstairs, ate some breakfast, and ran outside to the bus stop.

I sat in my room, staring out the foggy window. All I could see was the endless trees covered in bright shades of red, orange, and yellow. I wonder what this year will be like… I wondered silently. Suddenly I heard footsteps climbing the stairs, breaking me from my thoughts. I thrust myself back under the covers, frantically entangling my legs. My door opened and my mother stepped into the room. Lightly she shook my shoulder, peeking through a squinted eye I could see she was still half asleep herself. “Jackelyn,” she sniffled, “get up, first day of school.” I sat upward and pretended to be tired. I yawned, “Mom you don’t sound good.” She shook her head, “Jack you worry ‘bout me too much honey.” “Well-” She cut me off before I could say anything else. “Jackelyn, for the love of God, it’s a head cold.” I looked down. “It’s-it’s just that dad…” She lifted my chin with a bony finger, “Look honey, I miss your father too, but you need to toughen up. I promise I’m not leaving anytime soon.” I groaned, I could never handle mushy stuff. “Ok get ready fuzz ball.” I raised my eyebrow, confused. “What?” She pointed at the mirror and shut the door behind her. I glanced over at it, and saw my black hair in a giant heap of fuzz. Turning away, I looked back at myself. I had my father’s brown eyes and black hair that I kept at my shoulders and my mother’s tall, bony body and pale complexion. Thinking about my father, my eyes welled and I turned away.

“Good morning sunshine! How are you?”She took a long sip of her coffee. “Fine.” I replied, still annoyed that she hadn’t noticed my arrival before I had to announce my presence to her.She bit her lip. “Aww don’t be that way honey, you know how busy I am.” I Muttered as if under my breath. For now, I was too tired to put up a fight. I put it aside in the back of my mind. “Wheres dad?” I asked. “He had to go to work early.” That was the answer I was expecting. Dad always had to go to work early. I sat down and ate my bacon and eggs in silence. After I had finished, I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. On the way to the bus stop, I saw Jennifer walk out of her house, the house with the blue walls and grey carpet inside.A house I could