The Road By Cormac Mccarthy: Chapter Analysis

Both The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Empties by Jess Row are apocalyptic stories that describe the state of human civilization after the annihilation of civil society. Whereas in The Road civil society is destroyed and remains defunct after the apocalypse, The Empties tells of a people who are able to bounce back and reestablish their society. Many people today live their lives aimlessly, squandering their time day by day, partaking in life’s pleasures, and living for their own selfish reasons. McCarthy and Row bring attention to the selfishness and self-absorption that plagues today’s teens by showing two different possible scenarios following an apocalyptic event, resulting from a fundamental difference

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

Cormack McCarthy’s novel, The Road, is set in a post apocalyptic world, where humanity is struggling to survive. Through his simplistic writing style and powerful symbolism, McCarthy tells a story about the human condition as well as what it truly means to be human. Though it is set in a wasteland this novel still manages to project hope through the love of a boy and his father. The following passages are quotes that spoke to me stylistically or symbolically while I was reading.

As one is put through times of strife and struggle, an individual begins to lose their sense of human moral and switch into survival mode. Their main focus is their own survival, not of another's. In the post-apocalyptic novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a father and son travel along the road towards the coast, while battling to survive the harsh weather and scarce food supply, as well as avoid any threats that could do them harm. Throughout their journey along the road, the father and son are exposed to the horrid remnants of humanity. As a result, the father and son constantly refer to themselves as “the good guys” and that they “carry the fire”, meaning they carry the last existing spark of humanity within themselves. By the acts of compassion

The Road by Cormac McCarthy takes place in a post- apocalyptic world where a man and his son are trying to survive, one arduous day at a time; however starvation, sickness, and death stare them right in the face. No one knows what happened to the world, or why it is now a barren wasteland. All animals seem to be extinct. This man and his son seem to be somewhere north because throughout the book they talk about going south. The boy says, “And we’re still going south.” And the man answers, “Yes.” (10). The man had a wife but she left. She says “I’ve taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot.” and he replies “Death is not a lover.” (56) She ends up leaving them and she is depicted to of died. The story begins with this man and his son sleeping in the woods. When they awake, they begin to go south because apparently it’s warm there. These two wander the roads of the long forgotten cities looking for food and warmth. They push a cart carrying some of their salvaged goods and blankets. The blankets are essential because the only thing keeping them warm is a parka and worn out pants. They continue on their journey

● Show how the weakest suffer, with slavery a possibility, and human life is cheap.

Humanity disagrees about tradition, religion, party choice, and almost everything that people could agree or disagree with, but music has the power to put aside all those differences and bring people together. The Road by Cormac McCarthy takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everything including the sweet sounds of music is gone. No matter the time or the place, music has an effect on every living human being. Whether it’s the first time hearing music or listening and bonding with friends over the new top song, music is what people can always rely on to create endless sounds of joy. The people in this book have a feeling of emptiness and silence in which now they forget what those beautiful sounds are like.

People tend to group themselves into cliques with other individuals that share beliefs, traditions, interests, or experiences. Authors use the familiar segregation to expose the contrast in values between groups, generally through alienation from that particular group. In The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy, this technique is demonstrated through the isolation of The Man and The Boy from the rest of society and each other to illuminate the principles of the post-apocalyptic world.

The world is in desolation and every day is a struggle to live. What would seem as an impossible situation is the daily life of a man and young boy in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road is a post apocalyptic story of the hardships of a man and his son. Every day the two must face starvation, bitter, cold nights, and the loss of hope. Some days are easier than other but most of them are difficult. When the world comes to an almost end and just living becomes a difficult task you have to find a reason to live for. The man’s reason was his son. Without his son the will to live and fight to live would have disappeared. The man knows this himself and so did the mother of his son. With the everyday challenges they face the hardest is simply finding

The Road, Cormac McCarthy’s novel portrays a gripping tale of survival of a father and son across a post-apocalyptic world that is devoured by marauders and cannibals that have abandoned all of their beliefs, morals and values and will do anything to survive. In contrast, the two protagonists are portrayed as the ‘good guys’ who carry the ‘fire’, and survive in the obliterated world with their own beliefs, morals and values constantly being challenged by the antagonists. As a young adolescent who has experienced the harsh environments of a war torn country such as Afghanistan, and have prior experiences of being a refugee. The novel presents several scenes that challenge my even my own past experiences and the author

The road is the main setting of the book. The papa and son always go on the road to go north hoping to find something better. The road symbolizes them to move forward and keep surviving. The road is full of danger but at the end it was worth it because they found a beach. So it symbolizes the journey is tough and hard but soon you'll find a happy place. The road is a sign of good because it quoted ¨What happened to them? I don't know exactly. That's a good question. But the roads are still there. Yes. (McCartney 22).¨ After all the natural disasters, the road is the only thing standing in good

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy revolves around a dystopian world. Throughout the book there is very little hope but enough for survival. McCarthy focuses the book around a father and son trying to move west. McCarthy’s writing style throughout the first section of the book shows how hopeless the world is, by extinguishing character names, negative connotations, and almost all of society.

One would like to believe that if society did happen to fall due to some apocalypse-causing event, people of all types would come together and help one another through the difficult times. However, The Road depicts how McCarthy feels people would truly respond to such a traumatizing event; they would respond with fear and do anything it takes to provide for themselves and survive. Throughout the novel, there are countless instances where human decency is nonexistent. As the food supply on Earth is dwindling, many of the characters in the story begin to eat other people. The cannibals are breaking many of their previously-followed morals as a means of keeping their lives.

The Road takes place in post-apocalyptic America after an unknown disaster occurs. The novel centers around a boy and his father, both of whom are never given names. In an analepse, the reader learns that the mother of the boy kills herself with “a flake of obsidian” as she fears that she would be raped and murdered (McCarthy 30). “[The man] hadn’t kept a calendar for years” and the reader is left unsure what year or month it is (McCarthy 2). The man is sure, however, that winter is approaching and it would be best for him and the boy to travel south where it is warmer. They have nothing but a pistol, their clothes, and a cart with food they scavenged for. The world is barren with “dust and ash everywhere” (McCarthy 3). The story chronicles the man and boy’s journey to the south while they look for food, supplies, and shelter. The pair must fend off “bad guys” during their journey as well (McCarthy 39). When one of these “bad guys” puts his knife at the boy’s throat, the man is left with no other option than to shoot the “bad guy” leaving a “hole in his forehead” (McCarthy 34). Another gruesome event occurs when the man and boy are looking for food in a house they found. While walking down a cellar’s stairs, they smell an “ungodly stench” (McCarthy 56). In the cellar, there are “naked people” who are whispering “help us” and a maimed man on a mattress with his “legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt” (McCarthy 56). These people are being kept to be eaten eventually and the man and his son

Imagine yourself living in a barren, desolate, cold, dreary world, with a constant fear of the future. The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy and published in 2006, is a vivid and heartwarming novel that takes us through the journey of a father and a son as they travel South in a post-apocalyptic environment facing persistent challenges and struggles. McCarthy proves that love unleashes immense strength to overcome obstacles, even in times of desperation.