This analytical essay on ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly Jan 21, · The novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy offers a bleak and upfront perspective on a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity is reduced to animalism. The man often uses the phrase “carrying the fire” to describe his continued perseverance in surviving the post-apocalyptic world The Road essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Carrying the Fire: Effective Literary Devices in McCarthy's The RoadAuthor: Cormac Mccarthy
'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy - Words | Essay Example
The man demonstrates consistently that he is prepared to take whatever action necessary, even if violent, the road cormac mccarthy essay, to ensure his son's survival and best interests. The most obvious example of this occurs when the man does not hesitate to shoot the attacker who holds a knife to the boy's throat. In less dramatic examples, the man continually sacrifices the road cormac mccarthy essay own health to give his son nourishment.
He also works hard to reassure his son that they are good people who hold the fire of goodness within them, and that they would never do things like eat other humans. Overall, does The Road put forth a positive and uplifting view of humanity, or one of darkness and pessimism? The striking last paragraph, with its vivid imagery of trout hidden in deep mountain glens, offers a redemptive ending to what has been a story of awful indifference and destruction, where hope has eked out a meager, slight existence in the face of the ubiquitous destructiveness of human nature, the road cormac mccarthy essay, which has both caused the catastrophe and perpetuated the evils in the world afterward.
The boy's rescue by a family of "good guys" might be read as an ironic ending with hope in the face of disaster, where somehow the good-guy fire persists. The result is optimistic resilience, a hope against hope, which offers humans an existential choice about how they want to live, whether or not human nature and physical nature make those choices easy or hard. Both the man and his wife understand that in this post-apocalyptic environment, they are likely to be brutalized at the hands of rapists, murderers, the road cormac mccarthy essay, and cannibals.
The wife considers death to be a needed relief from these threats. To the contrary, the father considers death an abhorrent threat that would prevent him from protecting his son; his commitment to life drives him on the journey south to ensure his son's survival. Discuss at least two contrasting ways in which the survivors of the catastrophe deal with the chaos. The man's wife responds to the catastrophic circumstances by committing suicide and avoiding whatever gruesome fate might befall her.
Scavengers on the road choose to resort to murder, thievery, and cannibalism in order to survive. For them, humanity, kindness, and empathy are greatly diminished, it seems, although many of them continue to live in groups. The man and the boy, however, choose to scavenge and refrain from harming others unless violence is absolutely necessary to their survival. That the man and the boy internally "carry the fire" signifies that they are the "good guys.
The fire represents internal human strength in the form of qualities the road cormac mccarthy essay as hope, perseverance and resilience, as well as morality, the ability to the road cormac mccarthy essay one's humanity in the face of ultimate destruction and evil. How do the protagonists distinguish the "good guys" from the "bad guys"? Are the protagonists indeed the "good guys"? The man and the boy consider themselves good guys, which they tend to see as seeking survival without harming others.
They only scavenge for food and supplies, but they try not to steal from others, and they punish those who steal from them. In contrast, the "bad guys" are willing to hurt, use, or murder others for their own benefit. How does the boy's relationship with his father change over the course of their journey?
The boy matures over the course of this journey, and his changing relationship with his father reflects this growing maturity, the road cormac mccarthy essay. At the beginning of the novel, the boy looks to the father for knowledge and guidance, believing his father to speak the truth unequivocally. However, as he gains new experiences, the boy learns to use his own judgment and can the road cormac mccarthy essay somewhat better whether or not his father is telling the truth.
He begins to question his father's honesty on such matters as whether or not they are truly the "good guys" and asserts his own opinion when believing that they should help other people. In a sense, it is time for the father to die when the son is mature enough to make his own the road cormac mccarthy essay decisions for the new generation.
What purpose do the father's memories and dreams serve in The Road? The man's recurring memories and dreams poignantly underscore, often by contrast with, the hopeless destruction and chaotic violence which characterize his situation in reality. These passages also demonstrate the man's struggle not to succumb to wishful fantasies but instead to persevere throughout the journey's seemingly insurmountable hardships.
The vivid excerpts from his past life remind him and the reader that such a life did once exist, despite the hellish present circumstances. Discuss some of the literary techniques used by McCarthy to evoke and maintain the novel's largely grim and bleak setting. Perhaps the most important literary devices used to achieve this end are flashbacks, repetition, and vivid imagery of nature. The bleak imagery he evokes insistently impress upon the reader the extremely harsh conditions the protagonists must face.
Throughout the novel, the boy and the man also touch upon the same themes in their conversations: whether they will die of starvation; being the good guys; carrying the fire. These repetitions or mantras keep the sobering themes of death, violence, and unlikely survival to the fore.
Furthermore, the road cormac mccarthy essay, the contrasting flashbacks, the road cormac mccarthy essay, full of life and color, juxtaposed with the imagery of a dead land inhabited by the walking dead, highlight the gravity of the protagonists' present circumstances.
The flashbacks also scramble the linear telling of the story, seeming to lengthen the arduous journey endured by the man and the boy. Trust or the lack of trust is the expression of a basic human relationship. Those who can be trusted will work together; those who cannot be trusted will be either ignored or killed. The the road cormac mccarthy essay paranoid and unsympathetic behavior towards other travelers on the road, though they may be harmless like Ely and the burnt man, stem from his distrust of all other individuals, because of his past experience.
The boy has seen much less trouble in his short life and tends to trust others much more. His trust in his father reflects his love but also his immaturity, and as he matures he learns to decipher the situations in which his father may be lying to protect him, so that by the end of the novel, he does not simply take his father's words at face value.
The Question and Answer section for The Road is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The original book text doesn't have a lot of detail of mother. We know she wants to die and she wants her boy to die. The world is dead and she would rather have her son die than be exposed to the soulless scavengers left roaming the countryside When they stop by the orchard, what does the man see that he has seen before?
They find an orchard with "a frieze of human heads, all faced alike, dried and caved with their taut grins and shrunken eyes". Why does the kid say he talks to his dad more than he talks to God?
He cried for a long time. I'll talk to you every day, he whispered. And I wont forget. No matter what. The Road study guide contains a biography of Cormac McCarthy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
The Road essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Remember me. Forgot your password? Buy Study Guide. The boy prefers to talk the road cormac mccarthy essay his father, and he had promised to talk to him every day.
He tried to talk to God but the best thing was to talk to Study Guide for The Road The Road study guide contains a biography of Cormac McCarthy, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.
About The Road The Road Summary Character List Glossary Themes Read the Study Guide for The Road…. Essays for The Road The Road essays are academic essays for citation. Carrying the Fire: Effective Literary Devices in McCarthy's The Road The Road: Hope for an Obliterated World?
Dystopian Novels in a Cruel World The Journey Motif in Works of American Literature Imagery and Themes Establish McCarthy's Views in The Road View our essays for The Road…. Lesson Plan for The Road About the Author Study Objectives Common Core Standards Introduction to The Road Relationship to Other Books Bringing in Technology Notes to the Teacher Related Links The Road Bibliography View the lesson plan for The Road…. Wikipedia Entries for The Road Introduction Plot Development history Literary significance and reception Adaptations View The road cormac mccarthy essay Entries for The Road….
The Road (summary and analysis) by Cormac McCarthy
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The Road By Cormac Mccarthy Words | 4 Pages. compassion in the toughest of situations, and leads us toward paths of peace. In this essay, examples will be drawn from Zak Ibrahim 's keynote presentation, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Beautiful Boy; a film directed by Shawn Ku, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut The Road essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Carrying the Fire: Effective Literary Devices in McCarthy's The RoadAuthor: Cormac Mccarthy Jul 16, · ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy Analytical Essay Updated: May 7th, ‘The Road’ is a book by Cormac McCarthy that focuses on a post-apocalyptic event involving a nuclear war. Evil is prevalent and man seems to have [ ]
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