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.
I cant seem to italics or underline the road in the title
ReplyDeleteI read this book a few years ago when I was teaching Sci Fi at HHS. I'm interested in your observations about the lack of punctuation - commas & quotes. Consider this: in a world as bleak as McCarthy has created, might the characters (and readers) question the need for conventions? What else from conventional society have they abandoned?
ReplyDeleteYes, I was thinking that as well. I noticed it when he was talking about the past and how the sentence structure seemed to be more conventional and modern compared to the text during their trip through the wasteland. And in reality, they are living nothing like their past selves, nor acting like them. A majority of their morality has dissipated and has turned into a more "every man for himself" attitude, and for good reason.
DeleteJustin, your conclusions about the lack of commas and punctuation showed a part I did not really pay attention to during the novel. This unlocked a deeper meaning to McCarthy's writing style. I also agree that the lack of organization is somewhat jumbled but very unique. Also, even though the author uses short sentences, he still incorporates a ton of figurative language making the short sentences show more than they tell. However, the dialogue is much different as you pointed out. The constant talking about death, even from the boy, shows the hopelessness of civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis of the style of the writing and hope that the shorter, less exciting parts are soon to be replaced with more action!
ReplyDeleteGood identification of stylistic choices. What do think the purpose is in shifting from the vary direct dialogue of the characters and the more sophisticated language of the narrator? Do you think it's really a third person limited narrator, and why does this matter?
ReplyDeleteRemember that word choice and motif aren't exactly the same. Word choice can lead to motifs but you need to categorize the word choice into motifs.
I never really came to a conclusion as to why he went into extreme detail at times. My best guess was to show how boring everything around them was, or to emphasise the importance of the scene, but I never saw any of them as important. Also for the third person limited, as of now, it seems like most of the narration is coming from The Man, but I wil have to finish the book to see if we go into another characters mind that we meet. As for the importance of it, I think that its just his style of writing. I guess that the narration could be seen as a little biased because we are only getting narration from The Man and that may be a reason as to why McCarthy chose the POV. But I am not sure yet.
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