From the very first page, it became apparent to me that The Road was not going to be like any other novel I had read. It seems as though Cormac McCarthy's writing style/structure is meant to emphasize the subject/themes of the novel. First of all, the novel is written in vignettes rather than chapters or any other traditional book structure, which I feel highlights the "in/out" nature of the man & the boy's "higher" consciousness, and the way all of the days blend together since essentially all they do day in and day out is walk around and try to survive. Continuing the analyzation of McCarthy's style, he tended to omit many punctuation marks, which I feel served to make the writing seem hastily done.
I think that the way the author described setting of the novel really helped to illustrate the actual magnitude of their situation. Many words were used quite frequently in the descriptions of the setting including: ash, gray, murk, dark/darkness, etc. I think we all understand that their experience is a pretty tough one, one we wouldn't expect normal people to be able to weather, much less a boy. This leads to my next point...
As we are studying adversity in this unit, it's important to note that the situation presented in The Road certainly exemplifies adversity, and on multiple levels. The man and the boy are entirely alone through the majority of this portion of the book, and must look out for one another and for themselves at all times. There's immeasurable danger in the world, and they are well aware of this, as is shown by the boy's skittishness. One of the most obvious ways that the characters deal with their adversity is through memory. The man sometimes has pleasant/captivating memories/daydreams of his wife, or the woman who was his wife, as well as his childhood, and I think these memories help him because their beauty distracts him from his situation. However, these memories can also be problematic because of their distracting nature. Additionally, as much as they remind him of the beauty of the world, they also slam him with the reality that no such beauty exists anymore. Another way they deal with their adversity is their companionship, for this is the main motivation/drive/factor overall that's making them survive.
(Side note: I feel like the man is trying to prepare himself and/or the boy for something that is to happen, but I don't know what yet. I think this because of some of the man's internal dialogue, eg: "Can you do it? When the time comes? Can you?")
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ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a lot of interesting points about the style and flow of the novel. It all makes sense too, because I don't see any other reason for the thoughts to flow together and to leave out punctuation marks. The part I find intriguing is the author's choice of words to describe the scenery. The one that really gets me is "ash," because I just have to wonder what was burning or what happened to create so much ash falling around them?
ReplyDeleteI also noticed how McCarthys writing style was much different that any other book, but I think it's fitring because it doesn't have a conventional theme/plot either. I think that the reason that flashbacks of the mother stood out so much because it was the only time that the tone of the novel changed, even thought it was an extremely brief passage.
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