The Inhumane Part of Humanity

Hey everyone! I just finished reading The Road and wow what a sad but also happy ending. I 100% suggest reading this book to anyone who is interested, however if you like action packed books with lots going on, this book is not for you. Also I will spoil the ending in this blog post so do not read further if you want to read the story.

I have mentioned this in earlier blogs, but I want to emphasize again that I think the reason this book is very cool and has an ever deeper meaning is because each reader can take away something different. Personally, the major takeaway I had was the power of a father and son bond. You see this from the beginning of the book when the son tells his father not to go into houses because he has bad feelings, all the way to the final pages as the father is dying and his son refuses to leave him. Once the son has finally accepted his father is dead he wraps his father in all of their blankets even though it means he is cold and continues south as his father told him to do so. Before his father dies, some of his final words were telling his son “he has to carry the fire” a metaphor for carrying on their legacy and the want to live. The fire will fuel the son. The father also tells him he will be lucky and will talk to the son each day as he acts as “God looking over him.” As the son starts to walk down the road he sees a man and after some back and forth asks him if he is “carrying the fire,” he replies yes. The new man also tells the son he has a son and daughter about his age. It can be inferred it is the same boy the son saw a while back in the book.

Another meaning and theme that can be taken from the novel is the inhumane part of humanity. We like to portray America as “good” and everyone is “nice” and “does morally right things.” The story contrats these good people as the son and father and the bad people they encounter who have to eat other humans or kill people for food. Even though it can be argued the father may have some bad qualities brought out in him as he makes the man who stole their things give them back and strip bare naked at gunpoint along with continually raiding houses for supplies and provisions. This novel shows the evil that can come out people in desperate times when trying to survive.

I think the inhumane part of humanity is extremely crucial and prevalent to life today as mass shootings and school shooting threats continue. Externally America is a success and appealing country to the eyes. But internally, our country is becoming a violent place. The inhumane piece is killing innocent people and threatening students to the point where little kids that should only be worried about Santa and the Tooth Fairy now have to worry about surviving each school day. I read this on social media the other day, “My daughter came home from school one day crying that she needed new shoes. I thought that perhaps someone had made fun of her shoes. She informed me that she realized during an active shooter drill, that if she’s hiding from the shooter, the lights on her Sketchers will give away her location. My baby is 8 years old and worrying about being shot because of her light up shoes.” This inhumane part of humanity has entered our country just like the father and son witness in the The Road with the battle between life and death.

This novel is pretty different than any of the books we have read in class. However, I think it is the most similar to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is sort of a stretch but some of the themes in The Handmaid’s could be classified as the inhumane part of humanity. For example the handmaids role in the novel is just to have sex and get pregnant. They have no other power or say in their actions. This can be seen as inhumane.

Sorry for such a dark post about the novel, but the story is pretty dark and depressing as a whole. Please talk to me if you are interested in reading this book! 

AP Worthy or Nah?

Hi again! I hope you have enjoyed following my journey reading The Road as I shared my insights on the characters and authors craft. I thought I might share a little bit about why this is a perfect AP curriculum book and how it can help you for the exam.

When I first heard about this book, I thought, “How will this be of literary merit if literally all a father and son do is walk on a road?” I also did know of its existence until Carter shared about in class. A few days later when I was talking to my Uncle on the phone, (he’s an AP Literature teacher) he asked me what books I had read. I told him, and mentioned that I was thinking about reading The Road for my next free choice assignment. He said he loved it and taught it every year to his class.

The author, Cormac McCarthy should definitely be studied in an AP class. Typically I find description of settings and surroundings in stories boring, but not in The Road. I don’t know how he does it, but McCarthy can just captivate you, making you hang onto every word even if it’s his third page describing the same thing. He also writes in such a unique style by using no chapters and not giving the characters names or developing them through their words. The characters say at the most five words to each other yet I could write a paper on each character based on their actions and the descriptions of them.

I think the reason this novel is of literary merit is because the author takes limited characters with a limited plot and through description develops a suspenseful story. He makes a simple topic extremely complex. The reader can have several different takeaways from it. For example, someone might say the main theme is the strength of a father and son bond. Someone else might say the main theme is the inhumane part of humanity.  

Along with the author's use of description, he also uses tone, imagery, and flashbacks throughout the story. The majority of the novel is written in a dark, negative tone as the reader wants to have hope for the characters but they continue to run out of food and become ill. The story becomes mysterious at parts when the father wants to explore houses for food and warm clothes and the son tells him not to go in because he has a bad feeling and is scared. The author changes to a positive, light tone when the father and son do find food as you can feel their excitement. We also experience a few flashbacks as the reader in the beginning of the book gets little insight on the mother, allowing you to develop her further in your head.

This text can definitely help you when taking the AP exam too with several different essay prompts. Any question regarding description, the use of character development, obstacles a character faces, perseverance, and many more can have this novel applied to the prompt. I also think it should be added to Hopkinton’s AP curriculum because there is so much analysis that can be done with McCarthy’s depth of description. It’s also not like many other books in the way it’s written.

Characters with no Names and a Story with no Chapters

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my first blog post about the characters in the novel. Sorry about the redundancy of “the father” and “the son,” the characters do not have names. Speaking of the characters not having names, I wanted to share some of my thoughts regarding the reasoning behind this and explain some of the author's stylistic decisions and craft while writing The Road.

As I mentioned above, the author (Cormac McCarthy) decided not to give the characters names, nor does he really development them deeply. The reader knows about their personalities through things they say and their actions, however the reader knows very little about either of their pasts. I think the reason for McCarthy not naming his characters is because it adds to the mystical theme. Each day the father and son are uncertain of who they may see and if they will have enough food and water to survive. This builds suspense for the reader. Not giving the son and father names adds even more uncertainty. We as readers don’t even truly know who they are. I think the father begins to question at times, “who am I?” and “what am I doing?” as each day he strives to be strong and find food and shelter so him and his son can live another day. But for what? For this life where they walk on a road each day scared to death and starving? The father questions who he is and what his life has become just as the reader questions who the characters truly are.

Another interesting elements the author has implemented is the use of no chapters. The novel is just one straight through story. This is symbolic of the story because like the father and son walking continually on this same destroyed road, we are continually reading this same enticing book. There also have only been two flashback to when we learn about the mother’s leaving and a little background of their lives before they embarked on the road journey. This makes the story even more continual as there are not even breaks in time.

Since the author does not majorly develop the characters and there is no plot to the novel, he spends most of his words describing the setting around the father and son and everything they see. “And on the far shore a creature that raised it's dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders. It swung its head low over the water as if to take the scent of what it could not see. Crouching there pale and naked and translucent, its alabaster bones cast up in shadow on the rocks behind it. Its bowels, its beating heart. The brain that pulsed in a dull glass bell. It swung its head from side to side and then gave out a low moan and turned and lurched away and loped soundlessly into the dark.” (Page 3-4) This is an example of the depth of description the author goes into. It truly captivates you as a reader, feeling like you are walking on the road with them.

I also really like that the novel is told in third person. However, I think it would be really interesting if the story was told from the perspective of the son. The son is not optimistic and definitely has a lot more feelings and emotions that he doesn't express. Every time the father wants to explore a house for food the son says “no papa, please don’t, I have a bad feeling.” He even said this the time the father found tons of food, clothes, and a shelter in a basement. I would like to know why the son is so reluctant for his father to look for food beyond the reason of he is just scared. Plus it would be cool to be inside the thoughts of a young boy, to see what he wonders about as they walk long distances in silence. 

Hello and welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts on the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Please feel free to leave your thoughts below in the comment section! 

Just Two Characters...Without Names...Walking on a Road...

What would you say if someone asked you, “Is it possible to write a novel without a plot and only have two characters without names who rarely say more than five words to each other?” I would say what a boring book that would be. However, The Road is just that. The novel is about a father and son who walk on a road, all day, everyday...literally.

Although nameless, mysterious, and nearing death, the two main characters embody the definition of perseverance and love as they walk south along a road hoping for a better life. This novel is the ultimate father and son journey for survival as they battle predators, the cold, and hunger.

The father is described as always staying calm and being optimistic as he promises his son they are safe and will not die. His goal is to do anything to keep his son alive. Essentially he is your typical father archetype. His son is the opposite, as he is paralyzed with fear. The son acknowledges the reality, that they are low on food, and only have one round of ammunition left. He begins to wish he was dead like his mother. You begin to see how compassionate and caring the son is even when he’s scared to death. The son wants to help those they come across on their deathbeds by offering to share his food, but his father does not allow this.

The son makes sure his father continues to eat and drink and does not skip out on any meals to save food. This is seen when the father gives the remaining hot chocolate to his son and just drinks hot water. The son reminds him he promised not to do that. The father pours his hot water back and takes half of his son’s hot chocolate. The son says, “If you break little promises you’ll break big ones. That’s what you said.” (Page 34)

The two characters rarely say more than four or five words to each other which makes what they do say even more powerful. You begin to feel sympathetic for the father as he hides his fear and portrays himself as strong and confident for his son. He continues to risk his life searching through houses for food and blankets and looking for firewood alone without protection, as he leaves his son in a safe hideout with the gun. I think if it comes down to it, the father will shoot his own son before anything hurts him. However, you also feel bad for the son because he is too young to truly grasp what is happening. This horrible life is primarily all he knows and he is miserable because he knows death is near as everywhere he and his father go contains rotting corpses and repulsive smells. He tries to trust and believe his father but he continues to take every step on the road in fear. The son has become desensitized to violence and used to these horrid sights.

His mother used to be on their journey with them but one night she accepted death was more appealing than this life and walked off into the darkness. The father did not have to tell his son, he just asked “She’s gone isn’t she?” (Page 58) His father replied, “Yes she is,” and his mother has barely been mentioned since.