¶ … Road:
Travelling the Path to Understanding Child-Parent Relationships
In the book, "The Road," by Cormac McCarthy, the world has stopped, society slowly depleting itself as the world's resources do the same. The man and the boy travel in search of the ocean's edge, hearing rumors that it lacks the cannibalism and rape that the rest of the world now unfortunately knows well. In their travels, readers are able to watch the growth of the father-son relationship, viewing both what the man has sacrificed for his son's benefit, as well as the growth the boy has into understanding and appreciating these sacrifices.
Others searched for means of survival, too, such as finding food, drink, and shelter. Many have turned to cannibalism, but the man refuses to teach his boy such animosity, no matter how hungry the two become. Early on the boy lets the readers understand the lifestyle in which they live, initiating conversation with his father by asking, "Are we going to die?" (McCarthy 10) Later in the conversation, the father foreshadows the purpose of his selfless actions, responding, "What would you do if I died?" (McCarthy 11) The man knew that if one's life ended the way it had when the world was good, he would pass far earlier than the boy. Because...
Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy is to some degree a very distinguished writer of a normally cheap genre of fiction: as Brewton claims, McCarthy's goal in All the Pretty Horses was to "tell authentic westerns using the basic formulas of the genre while avoiding the false sentimentality, uncritical nostalgia, and unearned happy endings that often characterize the genre in its popular forms." (133). But what kind of representation
Road Some books are deceptive in terms of their subject matter. At first glance, for example, such books can appear simple, with a relatively straightforward story. Others are excessively uplifting or bleak, appearing to cater to only one single concept or emotion. Many times, however, the most apparently simple stories can hide deeper themes relating to the what we as human beings truly are. They contain important lessons or hold the
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian McCarthy, a Pulitzer Prize winner (for his novel The Road) and highly respected novelist, is said to have gone into a lot of research on the history of the Southwest prior to writing Blood Meridian. And so, while this is fiction, the novel has a basis for its plot. Indeed the Mexican-American War (during which the U.S. annexed Texas) and the concept of Manifest Destiny are definite
The man and his son are so demonstrably complex in this story, even if their survival motives are simple and clear. Particularly, even as they endure a world of cannibalism and tribalism, the two struggle mightily to maintain a sense of moral turpitude, even to the point of impracticality. This is perhaps the most tangibly real element of McCarthy's text, which focuses significant attention to the scorched landscape and its
If feminism is about civil rights, human rights, children's rights and the search for peace, then it is clear that a substantial amount of the descriptive narrative in the Road is clearly anti-feminine. This has nothing to do with gender rights, and everything to do with the rights of all humans to live in dignity and be allowed "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The nights, McCarthy writes on
Symbolism in the Road There is a story for everyman in The Road, which is doubtless a primary reason that the book captured a Pulitzer Prize for Cormac McCarthy in 2007. The story is particularly poignant for readers who are parents as it manifests many of the latent fears parents have regarding their capacity to protect their children in a world that can seem hostile at every turn. The book can
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