 How is McCarthy able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying? Which descriptive passages are especially vivid and visceral in their depiction of this blasted landscape (pick at least 3 and please cite)? What do you find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it?
Part One Expectations (respond to the prompt above): 200-250 words (post word count), minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. Please use the assigned "pen name" given to you in class as your nom de plume. DUE: Friday night at midnight! Part Two Expectations (read everyone's first responses, select two that interest you, and respond to their ideas): 100-150 words EACH (post word count), minimal errors in grammar and usage, thoughtful and thorough writing. DUE: Sunday night at midnight!
33 Comments
Albous Huxley
12/16/2016 11:47:02 am
Cormac McCarthy does a great job at describing the terrible environment that both protagonists are traveling through. He does so, mainly, through his diction; particularly through his use of fire and ash diction. Through several instances in the novel, so far, we can clearly see that McCarthy makes it a habit to continuously vividly emphasize the horrid surroundings the man and boy are forced to live in. Early on in the book, the man looks through binoculars to view a barren city. McCarthy makes it his duty to highlight the “ashen daylight” that shines over the land (McCarthy 5). A few pages later, the protagonists reach a “burned house in a clearing” and a “raw red mudbank where a roadworks lay abandoned” (McCarthy 8). On their journey South, the man and boy are then forced to walk through the woods where “[t]hey followed the flats along the upper river among huge dead trees” (McCarthy 39). Plants are the symbol of life. Where there is vegetation, there is life. However, in this scene, the author kills off the reader’s subconscious symbol of hope, making this journey for the protagonists just a little less realistic. If those large, strong trees could not survive the environment, what makes them think that they can? Though the environment may be really unpleasant, I feel like the most horrifying thing about this world (to the man) is the fact that his wife killed herself. Imagine a world where your mother feels she had to kill herself just to make your chances of survival just a bit more convincing: that’s horrifying to me. It’d be hard to live without my mother right now. I can’t even fathom living without her ever have being in my life in the first place.
P.D James
12/17/2016 09:10:43 am
I completely understand why the mother killing herself is the most horrifying thing and though it is not what I found to be most horrifying it is awful. I cant imagine being the boy in that situation and waking up and my mother being gone. Then at the same time it shows a mothers love for her children that she would give her own life to save his. I find it horryifing because no mother should be placed into a situation where they have to leave their child so he or she could survive. Also, I agree that McCarthy does a great job describing the environment they are in and the diction that he uses just makes it seem so much more real and terrifying.
Ursula K Le Guin
12/18/2016 03:07:46 pm
I believe that the environment is the key to making this post-apocalyptic world very scary. It gives McCarthy a chance to use his imagery and other rhetorical devices to help the reader create a mental image of what’s actually going on. But, I do agree with Huxley that when there’s no sign of vegetation there usually isn’t any life, so I have no idea how there are surviving. On the other hand, when we see that the wife has killed herself it opens the reader to another side. Since she committed suicide that means that this was a journey harder for her to bear.
Ursula K. Le Guin
12/16/2016 06:21:33 pm
Throughout the book, McCarthy utilizes detailed descriptions in order to make the “post-apocalyptic world” seem realistic and scary. Near the beginning of the book, page 8, McCarthy describes the road “on the far side of the river valley” with “charred and limbless trunks of trees stretching away on every side” with “ash moving over the road”. He also says there are “wire strung from the blackened lightpoles whining thinly in the wind” (McCarthy 8). This imagery shows the reader how dark and disastrous and unsafe the environment has become. Page 51 discusses the evening when “dull sulphur light from the fires” appears and “skeins and ash moved slowly in the current.” He also sees the “charred bits of wood” on the concrete bridge (McCarthy 51). This highlights the danger that comes with living in an environment so unstable. It makes the reader realize how hard it would be to survive in a place without stable shelter and unhealthy living conditions because of the ash. Their homelessness and lack of necessary equipment puts them at a major disadvantage while travelling. Also, on page 48, McCarthy talks about the boy and the man traveling through “the drifting haze of woodsmoke” that came from a “haze of fire that stretched for miles” the day before. Because of the amount and vastness of the fires throughout their travels, it can make the book very scary to read. It’s as if the fires are inescapable regardless of where they travel.
William Gibson
12/17/2016 08:41:57 pm
I agree with what you say. The way Cormac McCarthy’s eloquence just breathes life onto the world of this novel—even though the novel is a world with lack thereof—is truly a sight to behold. The way that McCarthy just makes the novel just reek of desolation and destruction for its characters is breathtaking. And might I add, even though McCarthy is eloquent in his world building, what’s so intriguing is how succinct it all is. Through his word choice, he is able to create and add so much detail in the setting in just a matter of a few phrases. Truly, an impressive feat.
Phillip K. Dick
12/18/2016 04:41:03 pm
I find it very interesting that you not only focused on how scary the environment can be; you took into account that it is extremely unsafe and unpredictable. As you said, the amount and vastness of the fires throughout their travels can the book very scary. When dealing with fire, it tends to spread fast and in every direction. The ash goes everywhere and even after the fire settles, the ash and smoke still remain in the air and covers everything. Even if someone gets away from the fire itself, they are still going to be impacted by the ash, smoke, and the damage caused by the fire itself.
Phillip K. Dick
12/16/2016 08:49:51 pm
There are several instances in The Road where the horror of the world is brought to light. One instance is the passage “By dusk of the day...long since stolen” (24). McCarthy describes bodies strewn about the city and dehumanizes them. He says their flesh is “cloven along the bones.” It’s nothing more than a covering between the crevices of the bones. Their faces are “shriveled” and “of boiled sheeting.” They are unrecognizable. This creates an image of a masked creature far from human that the fire created. Another instance of the horror is “They followed him… he whispered” (49-50). A man is described as “...as burntlooking as the country, his clothing scorched and black. One of his eyes was burnt shut and his hair was but a nitty wig of ash upon his blackened skull.” Not only does McCarthy dehumanize the dead, he turns the living into the walking dead. Having a “wig of ash” and “blackened skull” makes him appear as a masked creature as well. Even the people who escape the fire can never really escape. A third instance of horror was “He didn’t answer...mute as a stone” (66). A man holds a knife to the son and the father shoots him and kills him. This man had stooped to threatening to kill a child, which in itself shows humanity has declined. The fact that the father was able to shoot him spot on with no hesitation shows that he is aware that he must kill to stay alive. People have become monsters inside and out.
Ursula K Le Guin
12/18/2016 02:42:45 pm
I find it interesting how you took a humanistic approach to the terrifying world that they are forced to survive in. It shows that the environment by itself doesn’t make a world scary, but the strange people the characters they are forced to live with can make the world an even darker place. The people also make the place more realistic because the characters are going to be pushed to do things that they might not do in the regular world. Overall, McCarthy does a good job of using the people as well to make a more realistic and terrifying world.
Kenia Pochette
12/18/2016 11:39:37 pm
I am pleased that you noticed the humanistic approach of the writer towards identifying how McCarthy make the post apocalyptic world so real and horrifying. A world in its own is not evil nor is it capable of hurting others. Without human beings or some type of life on it it would remain lifeless and motionless. As we have come to know so far there are other people in this world apart from them. Those people will push them to the limit and as usual readers will get to see many sides of a character and how they react to certain situations. Overall I believe the most horrifying thing about their world is not knowing if you're alone or being watched or followed.
George Orwell
12/18/2016 11:05:25 pm
I find your approach about this question interesting because most people would think to just talk about the landscape and how the setting looks like, but you talked about other things too that goes along with the setting. You talked about the humans and the bodies. For example, mentioning the decaying corpses allows the readers to see how the environment is and that the hygiene there isn't quite pleasing. Also, you mention how people kill/threaten each others because if you don't then you'll die. People will use your body as food and it will create less competition. This gives an insight of how sacred food, shelter, and protection is in that world. There are limited sources and the area is in bad condition.
Kenia Pochette
12/18/2016 11:26:41 pm
The way McCarthy chose to talk about how the body were pass decayed shows that the world is so horrible that even after you died you are still suffering. Likewise this is one of the passages I thought revealed the most about the type of world they are living in and the horror that surrounds them. It's a world where people are left to rot without a proper burial. A world where people are seen as less than human. To
Jasper Fforde
12/16/2016 09:43:26 pm
In Cormac McCarthy’s, “The Road”, he effectively makes it clear to the reader how destroyed and lost the world is in this dystopian novel. He uses vivid imagery to emphasize how the world that was once calm, is now reduced to nothing but rot and ash. For example McCarthy writes this horrific piece of text when he says, “The mummied dead everywhere. The flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taut as wires. Shriveled and drawn like latterday bogfolk, their faces of boiled sheeting, the yellowed palings of their teeth” (McCarthy 24). The reader sees that their world has resulted in decay everywhere around them, and dead bodies are a distasteful norm. Again on page 8 McCarthy describes the ashen scenery when he writes, “Ash moving over the road and the sagging hands of blind wire strung from the blackened light poles whining thinly in the wind…the shape of a city stood in the grayness like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste. Nothing to see”. Lastly, McCarthy demonstrates the blasted landscape when he writes, “Human bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes…Then all was dark again” (McCarthy 46). All these pieces of texts and many more have helped me and other readers create a mental picture of what this apocalyptic environment looks like. Because of this, I find to be the most horrifying features of this world and the survivors who inhabit it to be how all of this has become normal especially for the child. These constant deaths, decay, rot and danger is all he knows so it’s an everyday normal thing to him. However the father is the one who remembers the joy and life of the old world. And to see the dad have to go through this with someone who only knows this road of destruction is horrific and sad, because I’m sure he wants a better life for his son. wc 325
William Gibson
12/17/2016 08:52:30 pm
I absolutely agree. The way McCarthy has the man flashback to days before whatever catastrophe that made the world the way it is and the present makes the ambiguity of the disaster even more worrisome yet intriguing. And they way they’re so used to being surrounded by all of this decay, death, and desolation is rather strange; especially for the boy as all of this is what he has ever known. It makes you feel pity for him as the boy will never experience a peaceful childhood like other children but is forced to live a life constantly running to some unknown place.
H.G. Wells
1/8/2017 07:24:21 pm
These scenes are so horrifying because as readers, we could never imagine a world like this. We cannot bear to see someone in pain, while they have become accustomed to people laying dead on the road. In this post-apocalyptic world, civilization has been lost and humanity is decaying. It must be difficult to raise a child and allow them to see the world like this. This is all the boy knows, so he has no idea of how the world used to be better. Still, he raised the boy to be compassionate and have morality, things that have been lost in this world.
John Whyndham
12/16/2016 11:52:24 pm
In The road the author uses vivid imagery of horrifying features to create a realistic and horrifying world. In the early pages the man used his binoculars to look for something. He could not see much so he studied what he could see “the segments of road down there among the dead trees. Looking for anything of color. Any trace of standing smoke”(4). The world is grey there is no color and there is neither no signs that there is people like them survivors out there. Later on in the novel they found a place near a river that the boy thought could be a good place for them to stay. In the morning while checking out the place he stood watching the river “He dropped a white stone into the water but it vanished as suddenly as if it had been eaten”(41). In our world a river is something that could symbolizes hope and source of life. In their world it is something that can eat you up and make you disappear. Further down the road on their travel they came across a trailer with a “sour smell he’d come to know”(47). Inside the trailer there was “Human bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes”(47). Can you imagine a world where you could just be walking down the road, come across a trailer and for it to be filled with dead body that have been dead for so long that their clothes is rotted. Although these are horrifying things about the world they lived but the scariest thing about it is how the world and man coexisted together. The way the man have adapted to living in such a condition that the smell of dead body is familiar to him.
Phillip K. Dick
12/18/2016 05:00:13 pm
I find your analysis of the river very interesting. As you said, to us, it would be seen as a symbol of hope and life. Even in some religions, they're seen as a place were you go to be reborn. New life is created there. Rivers are also usually a hub for all kinds of wildlife and have a high level of biodiversity. When the stone suddenly vanishes, it shows how dirty and contaminated the river has become. Instead of being clear and full of prosperity, it is dark and dangerous. It is a hazard and can bring about death.
Jasper Fforde
12/18/2016 08:14:08 pm
I love both of your analysis about the river because I wasn’t even thinking of it that way. I liked how you both thought deeper about the river scene and just rivers in general about how it is a peaceful place and a place for rebirth but in this book unfortunately it is a dark black hole of danger that the characters face on a daily basis. It seems that this apocalyptic world brings new dark meanings to simple and pure things. That’s what makes the imagery at times dark and terrifying because us readers can look deeper and think like the characters who are constantly surrounded by danger and decay. wc111
P.D James
12/17/2016 09:00:50 am
McCarthy is able to make this post-apocalyptic world seem so real and terrifying because of his use of imagery to describe the waste land the world has become. When the father and the boy pass through the city McCarthy describes the city saying, "The city was mostly burned. No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust. Fossil tracks in the dried sludge"(12). This description of the city shows not only has something very serious happened in which a whole city was burned but that almost everyone is gone and has been gone for a long time because the tracks that are there are dried and old. As of this point in the story they are seemingly the only ones left. Since they are so alone, they mean very much to each other. McCarthy writes that they are, "... each other's world entire"(6)., "He knew only that the child was his warrant"(5)., and "...the boy was all that stood between him and death"(29). This shows not only are they all the other one has but that without the child the father would rather be dead which makes this seem so real. I think one of the most terrifying things has to be when McCarthy writes, “Within a year there were fires on the ridges and deranged chanting.The screams of the murdered” (32). Then quite a few pages later in a flash back the mom says, “Sooner or later they will catch us and kill us. They will rape me. They will rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us”(56). As a reader you can feel how terrifying it must be to live in a world where everything is gone, everyone you once knew is gone, and you have to live in hiding and constant fear of being killed for food, like an animal being hunted.
William Gibson
12/17/2016 08:27:02 pm
When it comes to describing environments and settings, Cormac McCarthy excels at setting the atmosphere that it feels as if the reader is standing alongside his characters. And when it comes to The Road, Cormac mainly uses diction in order to create a disgusting, visceral, and downright…off setting for him, the boy, and the reader. What makes the setting so eerie is how everything feels as if it has been warped into desolation. Even places that are held dear to others, such as the man’s home, isn’t safe from being transformed into the ruins of a fallen world. As the man walks through his childhood home, a place that he spent a good chunk of his life, he notices “trash on the porch” (McCarthy 26) he continues on and sees the “floor buckled from rainwater” (McCarthy 26). The desolation truly sets in for the man when he arrives to his room and opens his closet. The man hopes to find his things but only finds light falling into emptiness. He begins to realize that nothing is safe from being destroyed and becoming as “gray as his heart” (McCarthy 27) and leaves the house crestfallen. Along with desolation, what makes this setting so terrifying is the atmosphere of despair that surrounds everyone with the man stating that his heart has become gray and it’s later revealed that the man had a lover that killed herself. This flashback serves as a severe mood change as while there were subtle hints of despair from the man it wasn’t as blatant as the woman as she hopes for “eternal nothingness” (McCarthy 57). All of this adds to the pain that the man keeps in his heart as he has lost everything dear to him but still manages to keep on moving. And there’s also the ambiguity of it all that brings some mystery with a dash of fear. Is there a reason why the catastrophe the destroyed everything is never mentioned? Are there any more survivors than just the man and the boy? Later the duo encounters what’s only known as “them” came into view as they’re described as “stained and filthy. Slouching with clubs in their hands” (McCarthy 60). The man then proceeds to grab the run and hide under a bank nearby. Who or even what are they? Why did the man ran away and hid from them? All of this creates intrigue and fear for the characters and for the reader.
Ray Bradbury
12/18/2016 12:01:45 pm
McCarthy depicts the new world as a savage place, where it's every man for themselves. He appeals to the readers emotional side to have them see this picture. One of the first scenes that did this was in the beginning of the section when McCarthy describes the mans actions as he looks around at the now barren world. McCarthy writes "He kept the pistol to hand on the folded tarp on top of the cart. He kept the boy close to his side. The city was mostly burned. No sign of life" (McCarthy 13). This scene is so powerful because as the man looks at all that is lost he holds on to the only thing he has left. This scene also shows that the relationship between the man and the boy is not like the norm of the new world because they both depend on each other. Another scene that makes the new world so real and terrifying is when the father and son come upon the burnt body and realize that they are unable to help him. The passage says "He was as burnt looking as the country, his clothing scorched and black. One of his eyes burnt shut, and his hair was a natty wig of ash upon his blackened skull" (McCarthy 50). McCarthy's comparison of the skin of the lightning man to the burnt country is poetic, while disturbing and allows us to visualize the man and the country. The boy is deeply disturbed by this and cannot understand why they cannot help this man. The boy seems to show very genuine emotions in this dark world while the man has grown to adapt to the coldness of the world. As the mother is about to kill herself she says some words that show the harsh realities of the world. She says "Sooner or later they will catch us and kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us, and eat us and you won't face it" (McCarthy 56). The mother paints a horrid picture for the audience and the man to see but he refuses to believe it. This makes the book even more like real life because, sometimes when we see others questioning mankind, we try our hardest to see the good. This also makes us see that this world is brutal to everybody and pities no one, even the youngest of children. This is the hardest part of living in this world, the constant fear of who is coming to get you next. W.C. 429
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
12/18/2016 11:16:30 pm
I don’t think it is necessarily “every man for themselves” because in the case of the father and the son, they depend on each other for survival. I agree with you when saying the description McCarthy uses is poetic because it touches every detail of the scene. I believe an explanation as to why the boy shows genuine emotions in his dark world is because this is the only world he knows unlike the father; this is the boy’s interpretation of “normal.” In my opinion I believe the father was the one saying that quote to his wife because he was trying to explain to her all the things he has to fear every day. He is in constant fear that they will kill him and his son however since his wife is dead, she “won’t have to face it.” (word count 140)
Richard Bachman
12/18/2016 03:28:08 pm
McCarthy is able to make this post-apocalyptic world so real and terrifying is because of his vivid imagery. I am pretty sure we have seen post-apocalyptic scenes in moves and in pictures, but these words leave it up to our imagination to paint this picture that McCarthy intends for us to visualize. It almost seems that we are on this road with the characters. The first example of imagery is “Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before.” (McCarthy 3). This has already set a dark tone for us and gives us an idea of the setting. He explains that the nights are dark beyond darkness. We would usually think, how can the night be any more darker? Its almost haunting because what they’re experiencing right now is pitch black darkness. Another example of vivid imagery is, “ Just beyond the high gap in the mountains they stood and looked out over the great gulf to the south where the country as far as they could see was burned away, the blackened shapes of rock standing out the shoals of ash and billows of ash rising up and blowing downcountry through the waste. The track of the dull sun moving unseen beyond the murk” (McCarthy 15). This gives us an image of what these 2 characters see, ash and what was left behind from the disaster that has happened. Another example is, “The small wad of burning paper drew down to a wisp of flame and then died out leaving a faint pattern for just a moment in the incandescence like a shape of a flower, a molten rose” (McCarthy 47). He uses a metaphor here to bring life to this piece of paper near dead human bodies. This rose is almost like a tribute to the dead. What is most horrifying is that they’re all aloe and there is no way of knowing If there is any more life left on this earth. (332)
Jasper Fforde
12/18/2016 07:59:23 pm
Your analysis interests me because I agree with what you said about how the reader is left to illustrate the events of the book through McCarthy’s words. It is frightening to know that there is nothing but darkness and decay because in our everyday lives we see light every day and we are not used to seeing complete darkness because the world is destroyed. So as we are going along the journey with the man and boy we are also scared for them and shocked because as they encounter things we are too because of all this vivid imagery given. wc100
George Orwell
12/18/2016 11:23:27 pm
I agree with your response and I like how you mentioned the metaphors at the end of your analysis because that's basically their entire thought throughout the entire novel. They'll never know what lies ahead of them. I believe that darkness is a popular thing to be scared of because you can't see what's in the darkness and you don't know what's a head of you to prepare. Also, with darkness there's little life so if you entire it, you're entering a place that could potentially treat you the same. With little life, there's not much to use and there's limited things.However, when you see light or fire it could be a bad thing as well because you'll see what the terrible things that's to come. word:126
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
12/18/2016 11:47:42 pm
I agree with your first statement, even though his imagery is intense it still leaves a lot of space for us to come up with our own picture and develop our own opinion of the scenes. However, I feel he sometimes exaggerates in his descriptions like in the example you use “night are dark beyond darkness” it almost makes his words sound “extra” if that makes sense. In other cases, the metaphor he uses is amazing because his descriptions are so vivid that he can bring to life a simple piece of paper. That to me is mind blowing.
Anthony Burgess
12/18/2016 08:31:29 pm
In the Post-Apocalyptic novel, The Road, Cormac McCarthy creates this environment that allows the reader to feel like they are experiencing this world. One of the way in which Cormac does this is by the diction and visuals that is throughout the novel. Decay is a very important element that becomes included throughout this novel. He does so on page 21 by saying, “ On the hillsides old crops dead and flattened. The barren ridgeline trees raw and black in the rain...No sign of life” (McCarthy 21). These images of dead crops and no life allows a picture of dark and gloomy scenery to be put in my mind. It is as if sunshine hasn’t been in this area for ages. McCarthy also uses this idea of Ash and Fire imagery to convey this dark post apocalyptic feeling in the novel. The ash makes everything dirty and without hope. This dirty feeling makes us believe that their is no hope in this place. It is as if anyone who is in this setting will not make it out alive. “The city was mostly burned. No sign of life. Cars in the street caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust” (McCarthy 12). This vision of cars covered in ash and the whole city being burnt doesn’t provide us with sights of a fun and happy place. It is like it’s post-apocalyptic in this case which it is. McCarthy also uses his characters to develop this mood and feeling of a dark world. The boy clung to him crying, his head buried against his chest” (McCarthy 28). The boy is very scared at this moment and it’s because of the world that is surrounded by him. The boy believes it is just him and his father and he doesn’t know what is in store. By McCarthy adding this element of a father protecting his son would be course in a post-apocalyptic scene. McCarthy does a good job not only creating an image but providing us with these characters feelings to convey the mood and setting.
Margaret Atwood
12/18/2016 09:06:48 pm
In the road, McCarthy emphasizes on the aftermath of the post apocalyptic world they live in. In the book, he creates a lot of imagery for readers to have a complete sense of what was going on. The man shows how frequent there is "ash" and "grey" almost everywhere they go. Although some form of "faith" and religion is shown, he still talks about how "gray" and dark their environment is.He woke before dawn and watched the gray day break. Slow and half opaque. He rose while the boy slept and pulled on his shoes and wrapped in his blanket he walked out through the trees. He descended into a gryke in the stone and there he crouched coughing and he coughed for a long time. Then he just knelt in the ashes. He raised his face to the paling day. Are you there? he whispered. Will I see you at last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God, he whispered. Oh God. (pg.13). In this passage, it gives a clue that even in the "terrible" condition they live in, it makes it believable that he might have some believe and still has hopes that through dark times, they would go through everything successfully. it seems like The Man might actually believe in God. If someone starts asking questions about the physical characteristics of God – "Will I see you at last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you?" – it's possible this someone has some faith. By getting angry at a possible God, he lets on that he just might believe in God. The Man is quite angry with the 'God'.
H.G. Wells
1/8/2017 07:30:53 pm
I feel that the man's belief in God is his reason for not giving up. The world has become a desolate place and the two are near death. However, the man is determined to reach the south and survive. He must see hope in the world and his survival, or he would have given up. He is angry with God because he feels like he has caused this to happen. He want to make a better life for he and his son, but he is unsure if it is possible in this world. However, it is hope that helps the two continue their journey.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
12/18/2016 10:14:45 pm
McCarthy is able to make the post-apocalyptic world seem so real and utterly terrifying by his use of imagery when describing the city. McCarthy states “The city was mostly burned. No signs of life. Cars in the streets caked with ash, everything covered with ash and dust. Fossil tracks in the dried sludge. A corpse in a doorway dried to leather (12).” The description he uses shows there is no sign of life in the city; allowing the reader to infer it has undergone a catastrophe almost similar to 9/11 because of all the ash covering the city. Another scene that makes the post-apocalyptic world seem so real is when the man and the boy passed a man who McCarthy describes as “…burnt looking as the country, his clothing scorched and black. One of his eyes was burnt shut and his hair was but a nitty wig of ash upon his blackened skull (50).” The fact the man did not want to help this other man shows the selfishness in humans, regardless of the world they live in. This makes the post-apocalyptic world seem real because passing helpless people is something humans do in the normal world every day, whenever they cross someone who lives on the streets and is begging for money or food just like the man, many think there is no way to help and just continue walking. The emotions felt by the man and the boy is relatable to the reader and it helps form a connection to the story because you are putting yourself in the character’s shoes. The most horrifying features of the world is what the survivors have to be aware of, such as other people who will kill and eat other humans. The instinct of survival is something humans have naturally but it gets to a point where it has become horrifying. When the man dreams of talking to his wife, he states “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us (56).” Having to worry about things like that to me is absolutely terrifying and it adds to the suspense of the post-apocalyptic world because it gives a reader an idea of what kind of people are out there and to what extend people have reached just to survive. (Word count: 400)
Richard Bachman
12/21/2016 05:21:43 pm
I really enjoyed reading your response. However, would stopping to help the man that was burned benefit the man and the boy? I really liked your connection to the real world that we don't help people who are helpless and we see it right in front of us. But in a situation like The Road, I don't think stopping to help would be a good idea, it might slow them down, or if they become too attached to this man it will mess up their minds. If I was in their situation, I wouldn't stop either because I wouldn't want to affect my travels. However, I really liked your response.
George Ornell
12/18/2016 10:53:10 pm
McCarthy does a fantastic job of writing depicting the imagery in his writing.There were some times where he made his writing seem so real. Even though we haven't experienced any apocalypse, we are able to imagine the scenes so vividly due to his diction. For example, in page 11, the author allows the readers to see how the environment by saying how the man woke up before the dawn and dark grey day break and how he was constantly coughing for a while bent down and then finally he just dropped his knees into the ashes. Another great imagery in the book was on page 35 where the man and the boy had camped in a land that was next to a frozen creek. The imagery hear enabled to the audience to see how cold the atmosphere was and why it was crucial for them to move down south. The wind blew the ash from ice. Also, they laid naked on the tarp because their clothes were dry. Despite the cold, they still laid naked. Lastly, on page 48, the father and son had camped again, but this time the father woke up smelling smoke;however, the haze of fire was stretched from miles in the dark. The smoking light was coming from a valley. This shows that there might be some sort of life from a far distance. This could give a hint to keep moving the opposite direction from it. The two will never know who's dangerous or who will be willing to help. In this world the chances of someone helping is such a small percentage. Word:269
Richard Bachman
12/21/2016 05:15:53 pm
Even through your evidence I could feel the chills going up and down my back because of the imagery that is presented here. In this world that they're living in now, everyone is for themselves and everyone is fighting to survive. No one is trusted because they could be luring you in to kill you instead. Despite the cold, this father and son duo is still fighting with the fire inside them and they need to be down south. It will take a lot for these two to survive and get to where they need to be.
H.G. Wells
12/20/2016 10:24:34 pm
McCarthy's use of language and imagery in The Road paints a vivid picture of a decaying post-apocalyptic world to its readers. One section that was very strong to me was "'Do you think there could be fish in the lake?' 'No. There's nothing in the lake'" (McCarthy 20). This is powerful because the boy is hopeful that there could be life in the lake, but the father tells him there is not, showing no only the lake's lifelessness, but also the rest of the world's. Another section in the novel with strong imagery is "The mummied dead...long since stolen" (McCarthy 24). This paragraph describes how people are laying dead in the streets. They are well-decayed and show no sign of life. "The clock stopped...I'm not'" (McCarthy 52-53) is a terrifying section in the novel. McCarthy's minimal description of the event that happened makes the reader fear what happened more because they don't know what it was. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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