In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, a young boy and his father fight for their lives in a post-apocalyptic world. The book was published in September of 2006 and was written for the author’s son. “Good guys” vs “bad guys” is a recurring subject throughout the book, and the father teaches his son to be one of the few “good guys” that are left in the world they live in. The author shows that by keeping positive morals in the worst times of life, a strong character is developed to overcome any obstacles.…
In the short story of “The Allegory of the Cave”, it is a representation of the individuals who fear the “unknown”. Plato is proposes thought provoking questions and challenges readers to act on the suspicion of life outside of “norms” or “commonalities within our societies. This story can be applied to all social classes in the world, as each person is faced with challenges and some type of adversarial encounters. Ever wonder what the phrase “The grass is greener on the other side” may insinuate? Socrates tells the story of an individual breaking through the mental chains of challenging the unknown, and now is faced with being admonishment and threats, rather than the same excitement he developed internally.…
Imagine being alone and trying to survive with no food, shelter, and marauders and cannibals waiting for you to cross their path. Cormac McCarthy confronts these fears in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road. Released on September 26 2006, this novel has been opening the reader’s eyes to what the reality of survival looks like. An unexplained catastrophe has turned the world into bunt, sparse land that is now home to only a few humans and dogs. The main characters are an unnamed man and his young son, who are traveling south across America to reach warmer weather.…
The award-winning novel, The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, portrays the man’s unconditional love for his son in the post-apocalyptic world. At first glance, the novel portrays a hopeless, desolate ambience and elements of despair seem to greatly outweigh elements of hope throughout the novel. Upon further analysis of the text, it is evident that McCarthy uses symbols to portray unconditional love and hope, thus making The Road a novel of hope. Throughout the novel, there is a constant battle between good and bad.…
In post-apocalyptic stories, the world is portrayed in a disastrous and devastating form. The death of animals or human beings would be such a normal phenomenon under the circumstance, and everything is saturated with sadness and desperation. However, there is usually still a small number of survivors who demonstrate love and morality, being the last hope of humanity. In The Road written by Cormac McCarthy, the survived father and son are two typical examples of this idea. They show love and kindness to each other and the people they meet.…
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a novel that diverges from the customary standards regarding format of how a novel is written. McCarthy tends to ignore the usage of quotations and apostrophes and also writes in a splintered fashion especially in the beginning of the book adding the tone of minimalistic times. He never reveals the name of the characters and only refers to them as The Boy and The Man as it is written in third person omniscient though it often seems as if the novel was written in first person which adds to the idiosyncrasy of the novel. On the contrary The Road is extremely detail oriented which immensely contributes to the overall theme and tone of the book in addition to putting the reader in the characters shoes. The Road is a fiction piece about a post apocalyptic desolated world centered around a boy and a man trying to fight through constant fear and inhumane…
The extended metaphors throughout the Allegory of the Cave provide clear comparisons between the prisoners’…
The Road, a post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy, follows the journey of survival of the Man and the Boy in a burnt world covered in ash. To escape the incoming cold weather, they decide to head down south to the coast. With nothing but a pistol, a cart of supplies, and each other, they must cope with hunger, thirst, and the dangers of the land. Along the way, they experience close encounters with bands of cannibals who either will try to enslave or kill them. Throughout the novel, the son, afraid of becoming one of the cannibals or “bad guys,” questions whether they remain the “good guys” whenever the father does something morally questionable to ensure their survival.…
The Importance of Sacrifice in The Road Cormac McCarthy’s The Road portrays a post-apocalyptic world containing nothing but the distinct loss of morality and desperate attempts to survive. In this cruel world, while most become bestial and corrupt, a father and his son struggle to find ways to stay alive while simultaneously keeping hope alive and staying humane in their ways. The sacrifices made by the man strengthen his relationship with his son and help maintain the only thing they have left: their morality.…
The Road by Cormac McCarthy In The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a third person narrative follows the story of a father and son that live in a post-apocalyptic world filled with danger and life threatening situations. McCarthy demonstrates the parental role between the man and the boy, where the boy influences the man by showing him that there is good left in the world. He uses the reality of their world, the contemplation of suicide, the times where they could have died and the boy as the last true influence of good to portray the significance of the boy to his father. The reality of the world that the two characters live in as presented by McCarthy is dangerous.…
Whether the main characters are survivors, or “the walking dead in a horror film” (Cormac McCarthy 55), they are “carrying the fire” (McCarthy 129) within themselves on a journey in hope to recover the civilization that had vanished in the world of depravity. McCarthy’s The Road follows the journey of a father and young boy who travel the path of a road that leads to nowhere, searching to find a way to renew the faith in humanity after an unexplained apocalypse. The setting of the apocalypse was caused by the destruction of humans and their own selfish desires for power. The setting and climate both reflect the situation of human species along with their loss of faith. This is expressed by examining the setting and climate of the novel.…
Throughout pieces of literature, whether novels or short stories, imagery is an important literary device. Without the addition of imagery, readers would not be able to have emotional or sensational responses. In the interesting story of “The Road”, by Cormac McCarthy, readers encounter several situations where imagery is a prominent element which helps paint a better overall understand of the setting, plot and characters. Early on in “The Road”, readers are faced with a father and son looking to get to the coast in a post-apocalyptic United States. The two are looking to find a warm area to evade the freezing winters of the North, but must endure several weeks of hardships and horrors.…
There are multiple things needed for a relationship to grow and strive. Hope is one of the most important virtues that keeps a relationship going. In the Road by Cormac McCarthy, hope, rather its gained or lost, is a continuous theme that is needed to survive in the author’s world. In this book a man and his son are traveling across America in a post-apocalyptic era trying to get to their final destination, the coast. During their journey they have many dangerous encounters with blood-thirsty cannibals yet, they survive with only each other as their strength and hope.…
Religion in The Road In The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, one of the most recurring themes is religion. Although it is an underlying theme, it is also one of the most critical. The author tries to show that even in a post-apocalyptic world, where everybody has nothing, and things are beyond tough, religion has a way of coming back so people have hope, and somewhere to put there faith into. Cormac McCarthy uses symbolism, metaphors, and imagery to strongly encourage this theme.…
In Plato’s “ Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the cave as very dark with chained prisoners in front of a fire observing shadow of things. The shadows are the only “reality” they know. Outside the cave, there is “light” and the “truth”. A prisoner in the cave wanted freedom. But the prisoners could not get out.…