Chattahoochee River
Thursday, March 19, 2015
The Road (pages 73-145)
The most horrific portion of this part of the novel, for me at least, was when the Man and the Boy discover the humans in a basement of a house. The first time I read this part, I didn't pay very close attention, but a particular detail stuck out that made me realize what was happening. One of the men in the basement had his legs cut off to the hip, and the end of him had been cauterized. It became apparent to me that these people were a stock of food for the people inhabiting the upstairs portion of the house. While at first I was very focused on how disgusting and grotesque the situation was, I started to think about what this might show about how people face and try to overcome adversity. In the case of these people who turned to cannibalism, I think it showed that their way of overcoming the adversity of their situation was to do anything they could to survive. In contrast, the Man and the Boy tried to uphold their "good guy" status, at least to some extent, and I think this is mostly due to the encouragement of more moral behavior by the Boy. This ties back to what I said in a previous post or comment, that I feel that the Boy has maintained a level of compassion because this post-apocalyptic world is the only one he has ever known, whereas the Man has probably become a more hardened/bitter version of himself as a result of this onslaught of adversity.
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The idea of turning to cannibalism completely disturbs me. It seems completely unfathomable that anyone would be so desperate to where they would harm others for their own survival. But you're right, it shows how different people chose to face their adversity. It's as if they gave up on their morals because surviving was just so much more important. I admire the Man and his son for retaining their "good guy" status by sticking to their values of human life, despite the fact that the Man killed someone else, because he was doing that to protect the only thing that matters in his life at this point, his son.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the author uses this example as a way to show how different people cope with their adversities. I think that both the boys own personal compassion and the morals that the father Teaches the son. It's surprising to see that the boy still has compassion due to all he things he's experienced.
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