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.
