Juxtaposition of Character in The Road

Juxtaposition of Character in The Road

By: Tyler Croll

Well, the two main characters in The Road are obviously the father and son. The father does not really want to live anymore, but he knows that he must for his son. The son wants so much to be with his mother, and he knows he must kill himself to do so, but is convinced by the father that they must go on; even when he wants the same (representing hope). His wife left him alone to take care of their child and since he is the only parent left, he stays in this pulverized world for the sole purpose of taking care of and protecting his son. With saying this, he does not want anything to happen to his son and would even rather his son kill himself than to be captured and tortured by the “bad guys”. The son takes the gun as his father tells him to, in case he needs it, which shows how courageous he is, for it takes a lot to be able to kill yourself, especially at such a young age. Even when the situation looks almost unwinnable, the father doesn’t give up hope and keeps on trying, which I think is the biggest similarity between the two of them. Neither of them is willing to give up without a fight, even when all it takes to get out of this nightmare is the two bullets they have in that gun. They are both extremely courageous and take a lot of risks to try to survive (such as entering a house in search of food with God knows what is inside). When the father encounter’s a “bad guy”, he shows no sign of fear and does what he needs to do to get him and his son away safely; he even holds a “bad guy” hostage at one point which symbolizes morals fighting back against the immoral world, and the immoral people are the home team and the moral people are the minority. The father is so incredibly smart, thinking so rationally all the time to find food and escape danger (ex. making fake bullets of wood to make his gun seem fully loaded); and so is his boy even (so curious; asks a lot of questions). I think that the son symbolizes what is left of morality with all the people he helps/wants to help as they venture across America. First off, when they pass the man sure to die, who got struck by lightning, he felt extremely guilty for not helping him and had to be convinced that there was nothing they could do to help him, by his father, in order to be satisfied and move on. This shows that the father represents strength and power and the son represents morality and hope. Also, when the son sees a little boy across the road, he tells his father that he wants the boy to come with them (assuming he was all alone), and then also when they come across that old man; the son demands they give him food and the father listens, even when he feels like the old man doesn’t really deserve it. With the father asking of a “thank you” from the man it shows his connection with his son and how, to them, morality is still important in this world.

Lack of Government Control in McCarthy’s The Road

In The Road McCarthy displays a common theme in most post-apocalyptic works; the detrimental aspects of no government control.  As the novel progresses it becomes evident to the reader how much the destruction of centralized governments and nationality effects life in the world.  McCarthy makes the statement that a centralized and powerful government is paramount to rations and those commodities requisite for survival.  The reader finds that all problems arising from food (or lack thereof) &c. are frequently overcome, yet the life threatening issues arise from no external and commonly excersized control, such as when the groups go around raping and eating others.  To the realistic reader, the groups that have placed themselves as those able to excersize control, eating others for their own survival, seem almost like a government figure.  One can draw many connections to these groups and the primates of our world many millenia ago.  Thus, while their society may not be perfect, it will evolve and incoperate some type of government system, just as homonids of our world have evolved and formed our current society & government.

Note: Adam informs me my last comment didn’t post, so my apologies if this is somewhat belated, or if a comment like this appears twice.

Government Control (the lack of it)

Government Control (the lack of it)

By: Tyler Croll

 

The novel “The Road” depicts the place the world will become after its civilization and more importantly government control is destroyed. Now that there is no kind of project to keep the world tamed, the world has become a very immoral, dangerous, and scary place. Finding food is a struggle making surviving extremely difficult, and people are killing other people freely, showing the demoralization of society. Also, due to the desperation for food, sickness, and lack of mental well-being, cannibalism has had its toll on these people, along with burning a baby. This just shows that without some sort of control over them, people think they can do whatever they want and don’t guilt over anything. People need government control or they are going to think anything is OK, and it will lead to the demoralization and insanity of humans and the world. So, without government control upon the world, people hide from each other and kill each other instead of doing anything productive; it is as if the whole world is at war with each other until the last one survives…and then what?…the world dies. People don’t have any sort of structure holding them together; to rebuild society. Without government control; without security and safety; the world cannot function. There are no rules, so it is like a human is just another animal who fends for itself and its family (that’s it), a carnivore even, until the animal is extinct…

Setting and Characters…Connections

Setting and Characters

By: Tyler Croll

 Some kind of huge disaster has destroyed the world and it’s a lot of its people. This novel, “The Road”, takes place in what used to be America. However, almost everything has been destroyed and there is barely anything intact and hardly any people across the lands. The title of the novel, “The Road”, symbolizes all that is left of society, as well as with them travelling amongst it symbolizes that that to rebuild the world you must take some kind of path to get there and do something. Civilization and society has been completely destroyed and there is not much morality left. Due to such a decline, it is almost as if the generation of people has gone back in time, and in order to save the earth, the people who remain on it will have to re-build some sort of a functioning society and rebuild the world, or else everyone and everything will eventually die. But as of now, the people who have been encountered are like animals, fending for themselves in the wild; centering themselves on food, shelter, warmth, supplies, and safety. All the morality that is left in the world is basically caring for your family as well as those few packs of people who stick together; this is what the world needs to do in order to make some kind of a U-turn. People have become been degraded among this earth, and do not even have electricity. Fires are the only means of heat, as well as the body heat of the two main characters that use themselves as a means of heating each other up, bundling up together. This symbolizes the hope of the people, a small dose of fight against the world, and the little bit left of humanity there is. Other people are losing their minds over this pulverization of the world…

The two main characters in this novel: a man and his son. The names are not introduced; I believe this is because this novel was inspired by McCarthy’s eight year old son, and him being an older guy but fathering him. This gives me the idea that in his mind, Cormac’s son is the boy in the novel and McCarthy himself is the Papa…

The son and the father are what is ultimately keeping each other alive. The Papa is the caregiver for the child, and the son is the only reason the Papa has for living. Therefore, the only purpose he has in life now is protecting his child and keeping him safe. The son is a smart boy, for he is very observant and concerned with things; curious – asks a lot of questions, sometimes seems to annoy his father which shows his weakness. His wife couldn’t even get this far, and killed herself, leaving the son to him. He would probably like to kill himself too but he can’t because he has a son to look after.  This relates to the whole weakness of the world idea and that it doesn’t look like people have what it takes to rebuild civilization. The father is really sick too… this is seen through his coughing up of blood.

Government Control, or lack there of

The Road shows what the world would be like without after it was destroyed. The few survivors are spread out, afraid of each other and those who lack morals are thieves, murderers and cannibals. People are starving to death and struggling to find food. There are no societies and no civilizations. Therefor there is no government control and nothing to rebel against. But this is the message that is being sent. Without any form of governing body the entire world is a wreck. People hide from each other and they are unable to come together to rebuild society out of a justified fear of one another. The most powerful rebels in the book live in small makeshift societies. There are very primal and viscous but they are their. These are the people with all the power and security. And they have a form of governing body, it may not be the kind that we today would follow but they are still there.
This shows the importance of having some form of leadership. It seems almost to be a look at anarchy. The world is currently in a form of anarchy and nothing is working. Marauders patrol the roads and kill for food and supplies. People starve to death looking for food and there is no security. No safety. Always cold and fear and darkness. This is in contrast to many of the books which show a corrupted government control. Instead it shows a lack of government control and chaos because of it. I find it to be a unique look at the idea of government control because many novels look instead at a form of leader becoming corrupt and abusing power.

Goverment Control and Rebellion

The Road has no one to really control society since there is hardly anyone to control. Those that have a group of people with them survive by killing others. The father and son see what they call an “army” at one point marching down the road but this army is not there to help anyone but themselves. They have slaves and women who are pregnant with them. Those in “control” only are because of the weapons they carry. The only way the father can frighten others off is with his rifle. He had to add fake wooden bullets to help scare others.

In one scene the father and son venture into an old house and find people locked in a cellar. One of the men has no legs, they had been burnt off and the smell was horrible. They begged for help but all the two characters could do was save themselves and run. These people trapped in the cellar were being used for food. As the father was running away he continued to repeat the words “god” and “Christ”. Does he feel that god needs to save them? Should god be the justice the world helplessly needs? The author Cormac McCarthy grew up in a Roman Catholic household so it is likely that the language was brought on by his religion and strong beliefs.

All around the two characters people are struggling to survive. When they come across a baby which is being cooked it is obvious that people are at their last resort. There are a few incidences where they see pregnant women. I thought they were trying to populate the world someway or that the women were used mainly for sex and with no protection kept getting pregnant. I was shocked when I realized that the soul reason for the babies was to eat them. Gross. People are using death to control others. The only thing is does anyone really want to live in their hellish world?

The rebels seem to be the father and son who are trying to be “good” and not eat others but instead find canned goods to eat. But one day the canned food will run out, as it already is, and what will they do. The father wants to protect his son but he won’t be able to forever. I doubt they will turn to killing others for food but I do wonder how far they will push their morals to survive. I guess I will have to wait and see..

-Sam

Setting and Character

Throughout the novel The Road, the setting never truly changes. It is a grey landscape. Ash is on everything, covering the ground, trees and lakes. It is in the rain and grey snow. The sky is always dark but at night it is pitch black and the two characters are unable to see anything. It is cold where they are at the moment but they are heading south to warmer weather. The young boy shivers violently in the night no matter how many blankets he has on. His shivers reveal his weakness which could hold them back later on in the novel. Their setting is slowly destroying them. The father in the novel is coughing up blood from inhaling all the ash in the air. This is a very bad sign. I’m hoping it will not hold them back on their journey but it most likely will.

As they travel down the road to their destination, the reader is forced to noticed that the two characters are doomed. They both have physical flaw which make their journey more difficult such as the weak son and the fathers sickness. The author leaves you with little faith in the two of them. You are only with the hope that their love will keep them together long enough to get to the south. The problem is what is in the south other then warmth? The two character do not know what they are walk towards. It could be rebels or cannibals which will kill them or it could be exactly the same as where they are now…nothing.

I’m excited to read further and discover what happens to these two lost souls. I can’t help but feel for the young boy who wished at one point to be with his dead mother. He is so young and already his innocence is gone. He knows of murder, suicide and survival of the fittest at the young age of perhaps nine or ten. It is very disturbing yet you can’t help but read forward, intrigued by what will happen next.

-Sam