I've turned the blog to ash. I'll leave it this way while we read The Road. Below are your prompts for Thursday. I know some of you have read ahead, but for the sake of those who have not, please refer only to the first 88 pages in your responses.
1. The Road has no chapters, no quotations marks, and very little punctuation. There are fragments everywhere. Why would McCarthy use this style, and how does he teach us how to read The Road so that we are not thrown by his narrative techniques?
2. Unlike the other novels we have read, The Road is written in third person, and McCarthy does not delve deeply into the mind or emotions of either the man or the boy (who are not given proper names). Instead, McCarthy relies very heavily on description to create emotion and to reveal character. In other words, the emotion created by description is somehow transferred to the characters themselves and to the situation. Point to places where description, and particularly the setting, stands in for/creates the emotional substance of character.
3.
What is it, Papa?
Nothing. We're okay. Go to sleep.
We're going to be okay, aren't we Papa?
Yes. We are.
And nothing bad is going to happen to us.
That's right.
Because we're carrying the fire.
Yes. Because we're carrying the fire. (83)
Interpret these lines. What do you think "the fire" is?
4. In an interview with Oprah, McCarthy said that The Road is "a love story to my son." Based on what you have read so far, can this book really be considered a love story? Use examples from the novel in your response.
5. Talk about the kairos of the novel. How does the post-apocalyptic world McCarthy creates play on the contemporary realities of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, genocide, or other pandemics? What about the novel seems particuarly relevent in 2009? Please use specifics from the novel in your response.
6. The action of The Road moves very slowly. This is not an action-driven plot. What, then, is the narrative engine? Why do you keep turning the pages? How does McCarthy maintain your interest? Again, please use specific examples.
7. Do we know what has happened to the world and to this family? Does McCarthy give us any clues? (If you answer this question, please ground your answers in the text; don't just throw out speculations.)
Thank you. See you on Thursday.
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"The Greatest Love of All"
ReplyDeleteThis is very much a love story, not one you would expect however. This is a father writing and sharing the love he has for his child, that is one of the most fulfilling and hurtful types of love.
In this first section of reading there are many brief moments where the father sits and seems to be overwhelmed with love. The conversation when the boy asks about dying, the father replies that he would want to die as well so they would be together. "This is my child, he said. I wash dead man's brains out of his hair. That's my job. Then he wrapped him in the blanket and carried him to the fire." I could go on with the things that are stated in the text, but I think what isn't written is more important. The father is still there caring for the son, he is doing everything in his power to keep him fed, clothed, safe. He is teaching life lessons to his son and being an involved parent. Those are things that make the love story. Their relationship is always growing and they are in this together.