The Dead End....Literally

After completing The Road and getting an extra few vacation days to think on what to write for this final post -- thanks for that – I feel like the story has a little bit more to offer than I first thought.  However, this does not change my stance on it being AP worthy. 

                I enjoyed the novel because its style was a bit of fresh air from our usual reads.  It’s short paragraphs and sentences, as well as its one word dialogue made for a fast and easy read, something I am not opposed to.  While it might have been a simple style, there might have been a lot more to McCarthy’s decision.  His dreary and depressing word choice made you feel the wasteland vibes, destroyed and lifeless.  This word choice was what immersed me so much in the story of both The Man and The Boy.  But what his short paragraph style did was remove any sense of time.  I knew the story was moving forward in time, but since the paragraphs were like diary entries, there was no idea how much time had passed since the last.  That loss of time in the wasteland is mentioned by The Man in the early pages of the book, and it continues through the rest.  However, while this style added to the wasteland feeling of the story, at times I felt that McCarthy could have been more traditional in his writing.  His summary style of writing hindered my reading and understanding in some areas with interactions with The Old Man and flashbacks of The Man.  If McCarthy had taken a more traditional approach to his writing, more depth could have been added to the characters and while I understood what he was trying to say to an extent, it would have made it easier for me.  In the end, the style of the book gifted it the ability to immerse me in the setting and characters.

                As for the characters, I liked The Man more than The Boy.  I feel like The Boy didn’t know the gravity of the situation, and there are times that you need to suck it up and survive.  And tying it back to McCarthy’s style, his decision to have the characters nameless gave me the opportunity to place myself into their shoes as well as see the lack of identity caused by the wasteland.  But back to the characters.  The Man was absolutely going to die, his cough seen at the beginning of the story started the hour glass to his death.  So, I wasn’t very surprised when he died, but I was actually expecting The Boy to die too.  Guessing by the way the book had been going so far, I thought it would end with everyone dying, but it was not to be.  Instead, McCarthy’s decision to save The Boy and introduce other caring people into the story took me off guard, and in turn made me a little disappointed.  The book, I feel, took a complete turn in mood.  But maybe that was in result of the Boy continuing The Man’s story.  I guess he becomes the torch bearer and therefore the perspective changes.  Still, wish it had continued to kill The Boy.  He can’t survive in the wasteland with his big heart. 

                Like I said, the book was a good change in readings for me, and is probably why I enjoyed it as much as I did.  However, it’s not a beach read, nor a light happy read to just pick up to get a cute story, get ready for depression.  

GPS Says We're Here But...

After finishing The Road and finally seeing one of the depressing narrators die of his own boredom. NOT, that’s a joke. Rather he dies from his cough which was there since the beginning, like the scissors of the Fates slowly closing on his string of life.   But after completion, I found that one of the importance of morality and its effects on one’s character and morality is present throughout the novel and in a way, I think it is related to the idea of nature versus nurture.  Just hear me out ok? 

            Every human has a set of morals, good or bad.  In The Road, it’s all out survival and good morals are constantly challenged and tested.  Decisions to kill and decisions to save.  In many ways, our morals are what keep us from being monsters or being heroes.  Like I mentioned in my character analyzation post, The Man wishes to protect The Boy from the wretches of the wasteland, but in reality, The Man’s morals are very similar to one himself.  Fortunately, he is kept in check by The Boy.  He has the big heart in this story and journey, he always sees the good and innocence while The Man only sees the danger and crimes they have committed.  Such an example is seen by the two different attitudes towards the thief in the end of the book.  For me, The Boy represented the morals of the modern man, while The Man had the mindset of a survivor.  These two were therefore foils for each other when it came to morals and numerous other characteristics.  Ironically The Boy was raised by The Man in a wasteland so you’d think he’d have some whacked morals, but, whatavs. When it comes to other characters we meet, the scavenger, also appears to share the same survivor attitude as The Man; threatening a young boy for some medical help is very cruel, but for him, it was necessary and reasonable in order to survive.  So a question could be asked, is it ok to change from the typical boy morals to the more survivor moral set given the situation?

I think here is a good place to make my nature versus nurture case.  The Boy and The Man obviously have different sets of morals, one from the past and one for the present.  But I asked myself, are we naturally survivors morally, or have we just been nurtured by our current environment to be more kind and have larger hearts?  But that can also be flipped, saying that the environment of the wasteland has nurtured The Man to be the survivor he his.  Chew on that fat!

Continuing, McCarthy makes it apparent that there are all kinds of beliefs and morals for a human.  But what he makes quite clear, through the numerous characters he introduces in conflict scenes and acquaintances, is that morals define who we are as individuals.  Of course, people can share morals and have feelings of hate and love for the same things, but they still define our character and personality. 

            

AP? HIT THE BRAKES! Not So Fast...

As we begin to reach the end of The Road, the question must be asked: is this a viable AP novel?  I would have to say that it does not quite make the cut for an AP reading list… RIP.  However, this is all a matter of perspective and opinion and of course there will be differing ideas of whether it is or it isn’t, so don’t grab the torches and pitchforks just yet.  The book is very unique and quite different from the past three books we have read, Brave New World, Handmaids Tale, and Song of Solomon.  All are fantastic reads, but what sets The Road apart from the group is its style.  As mentioned in the first post, the book is very choppy, slow, and at random times, overly descriptive, while the past three have all been very fluid.  Those three actually use chapters and have neatly constructed paragraphs that make use of all kinds of literary techniques like metaphors, personification, and motifs.  I am not saying that The Road lacks such techniques entirely, but rather it does not use them to the same degree and in some cases, like allusions, doesn’t use them at all.  You’d be hard pressed to find nearly as many techniques in The Road compared to the past three.  So when it comes to the novels stylistic choice, it fails to be considered AP in my eyes. 

            The Road is not trash however.  While they might not have as much development as the ones found in Song of Solomon, the characters in The Road are fantastic with their significant amount of depth in their personality.  The Man for example has great struggles in his decision to either kill his son or wait for a later time in life threatening situations.  On the other hand, The Boy is developed to have only known the wasteland and still upholds the morals of a “good” human.  While their past might not have nearly as much of an influence on them like in Song of Solomon, I could be persuaded to see the similarities with Offred’s attempt in upholding her human decency while trying to survive in a treacherous environment.  The relationship between both The Man and The Boy is also very rich and, to me, is of some AP value.  The characters and their conflicts are strong enough for me to place them in the AP range.

            There is another major difference between past AP novels and The Road.  While the books we have read so far give an underlining message to the reader either about society, family, or personal image; The Road gives the reader more of a philosophical journey and question.  McCarthy does not give an underlining idea to the story for the reader to see like those we have read so far.  Instead he makes the reader think, or he has at least done that to me.  With his decision to make the characters nameless has allowed me to put myself in their situations.  For me I feel like I have asked myself the question of: what would I do?  Making me see what morals I would hold in a situation like the wasteland and what mine are now.  The Boy shows more of what we humans value now while The Man shows us more as a survivor and our natural state in a sense.  McCarthy most likely makes this contrast in characters for reader to see the huge difference in personality and the different methods for approaching and reacting to others in the wasteland.  While The Road does make us reflect on our own image and values, it does not make any statement about humanity or anything big.  This is really the Achilles Heel for the book to be considered AP.

            Both the lack of a larger meaning to the story and lack luster style of the story make it unable to reach the AP podium.  

Are We There Yet Dad?

The Road offers to main characters, The Man, and The Boy.  Both Father and son.  McCarthy chooses no unique names because, I believe, he wants us to be able to picture ourselves in their position.  Just like the lack of an explicit setting, he wants the reader to be in the wasteland. 

                The Man is a very mysterious character in a sense that throughout the story he displays incredible characteristics.  We don’t exactly get an immediate clear understanding of his character, but rather learn about him through such scene where he performs his character defining actions.  One such scene where we learn about The Man is shown he is facing off against the stranger and says: “…the bullet travels faster than sound. It will be in your brain before you can hear it. To hear it you will need a frontal lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus and you won’t have them anymore” (64).  Here, in this scene, we learn that The Man is pretty smart and knows a significant amount about the human brain.  Such evidence may point to the fact that he is a possible doctor or someone with medical expertise.  More evidence to support the claim of The Man being a doctor can come from his ability to deliver his son and cut the umbilical cord.  The Man also seems to be very skilled with a gun as well.  “The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead” (66).  He makes a maze of their tracks so they can’t be followed.  “They kicked snow over the fire and went on through the trees and circled and came back. They hurried, leaving a maze of tracks and then they set out back north through the woods…” (104).  The Man is a very versatile and smart man.  He acts only to protect his son, and is assigned to this duty by God.  It his “warrant” and he makes the comment: “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?” (77).  The Boy is his motivator and hope, without him he most likely would have killed himself.

                The Boy is somewhat young but is not old enough to act independently.  He relies on his father, The Man, to answer every question.  Almost every piece of dialogue is the boy asking a question to his father about either the past, what something is, or if they will die.  Something that struck me as interesting and abnormal was The Boy’s constant questions about if they will die.  For me, I wouldn’t want to just ask if we were gonna die, it’s a little grim and no one really knows if or when they will die.   The Man always responds with “not now” or “no” which is reassuring to The Boy.  Overall, the boy is upfront with his father, telling him if he scared, hungry, cold or anything.  The Boy faces a changing moment when he is attacked by the stranger.  He becomes more silent and almost scared in a sense.  The Man acts to protect him from strangers and the “bad guys” of the wasteland.  But from another perspective, The Man is one of those dangerous strangers; scavenging, killing—however he does not do so gladly—and doing what ever necessary to survive. 

                The two are like the sun and the moon.  They can only survive with each other.  The Man would surly kill himself like he stated “’What would you do if I died?’ ‘If you died I would want to die too’” (11).  If The Man died, The Boy would not survive very long.  He has very little skill when it comes to survival, he’s only a boy.  Both are relatable and are likable, the reader is most likely to see them as just a family trying to survive and not out to kill anyone.  Even in the book, The Man says they are “the good guys”.  We have yet to see if there is a lapse in time and The Boy becomes more independent, or if the story continues once The Man dies due to the wasteland or his life-threatening cough.  That cough seems to constantly stay with him and he’s always worried The Boy might catch it, adding to the idea that The Man might be a threat to The Boy just like any other stranger.  

McCarthy's Style of Writing in The Road

On the very first page, a journal style of writing comes to you as a reader.  McCarthy creates a style of short, factual, and visually filled paragraphs made up of short sentences.  The Road has a very unique style of writing using little to no commas or semi colons and instead, using short sentences that state blunt facts with incredible amounts of detail at times.  Furthermore, there are no chapters or any organization to the story.  Rather the story just follows The Man and The Boy through the wasteland from a limited omniscient point of view.

The story stays consistent with the short paragraphs throughout, and every now and again we will be placed in a longer paragraph reflecting on the past.  Page 12-13 has a very long paragraph reflecting on the time The Man had spent with his uncle on a lake.  The time change doesn’t only change the length of the paragraph however; changes in the sentence structure are noticeable and word choice is also slightly altered.  More commas are used in this past text in comparison to when the text is in the present.  “He picked one out and they turned it over, using roots for leverage, until they got it…” (13).  Commas are seen in the present, but usually only appear randomly when there is dialogue present. 

Such Dialogue that is in the story, is short, quick, but tells a significant amount about the characters.  The word “Okay” is the basis of most dialogue, that or something about dying. 

“Are we going to die?

Sometime.

Not now.

And we’re still going south.

Yes.

So We’ll be warm.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay what?

Nothing.  Just okay.

Go to sleep. 

Okay”(10).

Pretty riveting if you ask me.  The majority of the conversations between The Man and The Boy are like this: short, questions, and worrying about dying.  Not to mention, dialogue in the novel has a lack of quotation marks, like the lack of commas.  Adding to that journal feel, but also giving a sense of lacking civilization and etiquette of sorts.  So far, the style of writing by McCarthy is short, and to the point.  What the lack of sophistication in dialogue adds to the story is the tone and sense of depression and hopelessness.

            This tone is heavily influenced by McCarthy’s word choice and his abundance of motifs.  Motifs like: cold, dark, grey, wet, shoes, ash, and die are all words carrying heavy negative connotations.  It’s this word choice that puts such a damper on the story and the lives of both The Boy and The Man.  However, word choice can be quite exotic at times.  Every now and again McCarthy will include a passage of extreme imagery.  “He rose and stood tottering in that cold autistic dark with his arms outheld for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings. An old chronicle” (19).  The passage goes on to include words like “matrix,” “pendulum,” “satellite,” and “rotunda.”  This exotic word choice is a great example of how vivid McCarthy’s imagery can be.  Placing you not only in the environment but the mood. 

            McCarthy tells a slow paced but vivid story using his unique style of short, to-the-point writing and strategic word choice.  He keeps his descriptions down to earth, his sentences short, and makes every scene realistic, using personification and metaphors.  “The faint light all bout, quivering and sourceless, refracted in the rain of drifting soot” (15).  Examples of blunt short sentences can be seen on almost every page: “If they got wet they would probably die” (15).  FUN!

We will have to see if the style changes as the they continue down the road.  But for now, The Road is looking very bleak but unique.