Cormac Mccarthy Title The Road
Jose Sanchez
AP English P.1
3 October 2014
Author: Cormac McCarthy Title: The Road
Date published: September 26, 2006
Title
• The title of the novel, The Road, corresponds with the road that the main characters travel on when they’re attempting to reach the ocean coast. It is used as their guide to the coast and there was no specification on the name of road.
Author
• Cormac McCarthy was born on July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the third of six children. McCarthy attended the University of Tennessee but left in order to join the U.S. Air Force. He married a total of three times. Some of his other works include The Orchard Keeper, Child of God, and No Country for Old Men. In 2006, The Road …show more content…
The first one was prior to the novel when the catastrophe first commenced. The catastrophe was the spark for the father to seek the safety of his son. It left behind a barren wasteland causing him to enter a survival instinct to keep his son alive and away from the cannibals that came to be. “On the far side of the river valley the road passed through a stark black burn. Charred and limbless trunks of trees stretching away on every side.” (McCarthy 8) The second inciting incident was also a result of the unknown devastating event. The man’s wife couldn’t proceed with life of having to constantly be surviving. So she made the decision of committing suicide, but beforehand she told her husband, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it. You’d rather wait for it to happen.” (McCarthy 56) With his killing herself, it prompted the man to become his son’s guardian angel. Everything which she had said he sought to prevent it and keep the boy …show more content…
“Just remember the things you put into your head are there forever he said… You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget” (McCarthy 12)
2. “The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.” (McCarthy75)
3. “You have to carry the fire.
I don’t know how to. Yes you do.
Is it real? The fire?
Yes it is.
Where is it? I dont know where it is.
Yes you do. It’s inside of you. It was always there. I can see.” (McCarthy278)
The significance of this quote lies with the moment in the story at which it is said and its figurative interpretation. This conversation is held between the dying main character, Papa, and his son. He is no longer able to continue illustrating to his son that they don’t resort to any form of evilness to survive and they never stoop to barbaric ways. So he tells the boy to carry the symbolic fire that he possesses within himself. The fire represents human kindness, beliefs, and morals which the man wants the boy to retain as a
AP English P.1
3 October 2014
Author: Cormac McCarthy Title: The Road
Date published: September 26, 2006
Title
• The title of the novel, The Road, corresponds with the road that the main characters travel on when they’re attempting to reach the ocean coast. It is used as their guide to the coast and there was no specification on the name of road.
Author
• Cormac McCarthy was born on July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the third of six children. McCarthy attended the University of Tennessee but left in order to join the U.S. Air Force. He married a total of three times. Some of his other works include The Orchard Keeper, Child of God, and No Country for Old Men. In 2006, The Road …show more content…
The first one was prior to the novel when the catastrophe first commenced. The catastrophe was the spark for the father to seek the safety of his son. It left behind a barren wasteland causing him to enter a survival instinct to keep his son alive and away from the cannibals that came to be. “On the far side of the river valley the road passed through a stark black burn. Charred and limbless trunks of trees stretching away on every side.” (McCarthy 8) The second inciting incident was also a result of the unknown devastating event. The man’s wife couldn’t proceed with life of having to constantly be surviving. So she made the decision of committing suicide, but beforehand she told her husband, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They’ll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it. You’d rather wait for it to happen.” (McCarthy 56) With his killing herself, it prompted the man to become his son’s guardian angel. Everything which she had said he sought to prevent it and keep the boy …show more content…
“Just remember the things you put into your head are there forever he said… You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget” (McCarthy 12)
2. “The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.” (McCarthy75)
3. “You have to carry the fire.
I don’t know how to. Yes you do.
Is it real? The fire?
Yes it is.
Where is it? I dont know where it is.
Yes you do. It’s inside of you. It was always there. I can see.” (McCarthy278)
The significance of this quote lies with the moment in the story at which it is said and its figurative interpretation. This conversation is held between the dying main character, Papa, and his son. He is no longer able to continue illustrating to his son that they don’t resort to any form of evilness to survive and they never stoop to barbaric ways. So he tells the boy to carry the symbolic fire that he possesses within himself. The fire represents human kindness, beliefs, and morals which the man wants the boy to retain as a