The Road

2 of the ways you could set out your storyboard – notice that in both the arrows refer to the camera movement (panning, tilting, tracking)

Summarise ‘The Road’… Summarise the plot of the novel- both of these:◦21 word summary◦A,b,c,d… summary (Apocalypse Begins Creating Death….

First SectionLook at the extract you have been given.

Highlight or underline words that create a feeling of darkness.

In a different colour underline or highlight the words that make the dream sound disgusting or scary?

Highlight or underline at least three quotations that make the world they live in sound dark and scary.

Underline or highlight the words that make reference to death or blood.

A key quotation“He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.”

What does this mean?

What does this mean?

The man says this about the boy. This is important because in using the word ‘warrant’ the man is essentially saying that his only purpose in life is the protection of the child.

The quotation also links the boy to God, as if he is something to be worshipped and protected. This stands out because up until this point the author has created a world that is ‘Barren, silent , godless’.

A body paragraph - TEXASShould consist of the following:

1. Topic sentence – your main point of the paragraph. (use key words from the question.2. Expand upon the topic sentence. Explain what you mean further.3. eXample – to back up the point you are making.4. Analyse – explain why the author has used the quotation (the writer’s purpose) and what it has to do with the main point of your paragraph and the question. Use key words.5. Synthesise/ summarise – has the author been successful? Your opinion, and a link to the world or society.

An example T. In The Road the boy is made to seem very important. E. The boy is the only reason that the man lives and continues to travel south. X. The man ‘knew only that the child was his warrant’ and believed that if ‘he is not the word of God God never spoke.’ A. By using the word warrant Mcarthymakes it clear to the reader that the man’s only purpose in life is to ensure the protection of the boy. Furthermore, in using the word ‘God’ the boy is made to seem as though he is something that should be worshipped. S. This is effective because it clearly underlines the importance of the boy to the man and to the story.

Your go.Using some of the words or quotations that you have underlined or highlighted write a body paragraph using the TEXAS structure answering the following:

How does McCarthy make the world seem so dark and scary in the beginning of the book?

You can start with the following TE if you want:

McCarthy makes the world seem horrific in the beginning of the book. He does this by making use of a lot of negative diction. For example…

(you finish the paragraph).

Were you successful?.Compare your paragraph to mine. How did you do?

McCarthy makes the world seem horrific in the beginning of the book. Hedoes this by making use of a lot of negative diction. For example the author begins by repeating the word ‘dark’ and ‘darkness’ and then goes on to write that the world is ‘barren, silent, godless’ and that ‘there was no surviving another winter here.’ By repeating the words ‘dark’ and ‘darkness’ McCarthy is stressing how the world is a very dark place. In using words such as ‘barren’ and ‘winter’ he suggests that the world is dead and cold. This is effective because it makes the reader imagine a very dark, cold and silent world.

Techniques used by the authorLack of punctuation – this reflects the world they live in. There is no place for punctuation. The niceties of the world have gone and all that is left are the bare bones of things. The words and sentences become like the trees with no leaves.

Negative diction – the world of The Road is horrific. Death and destruction surrounds the man and boy. The language used by the author reflects this.

No names for characters – the characters do not need names. They are two people travelling to safety together. Man and son. Names are not needed because they only know and speak to one another. Names are also constructs of a world that has since died. Their names died with the world they lived in, as though they are the walking dead.

Detailed descriptions – highlights the importance of the small things in life and in doing so shows how the characters do not want to think about the bigger things because they are so scary. Also perhaps, there is nothing left in the world and therefore every little thing has its value.

Confused narrative – the story drifts between reality and dream and this sometimes confuses the reader. This shifting has the effect of showing the man’s state of mind.

Small details- STYLEIn The Road the reader is given a lot of detail about the smallest of things.

For example; there are long and seemingly pointless descriptions of how the man takes things out of the trolley and places them around him or how he sets up camp etc.

Why do you think Mcarthy has done this?

Small details- STYLEThe small details are important. There is nothing left in the world and therefore every little thing has its value.

The small things also become very important when the big things are terrifying (like staying alive, staying hidden, getting to safety etc).

The long descriptions are also a bit tedious (a better way of saying boring). This reflects the man and boy’s journey south – apparently long and tedious but absolutely necessary.

For exampleHe pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup. He spread the small tarp they used for a table on the ground and laid everything out and he took the pistol from his belt and laid it on the cloth and then he just sat watching the boy sleep.

Small details- STYLE

Find at least three examples of vocabulary or prose in ‘The Road’ that you feel something about.

This might be negative or positive

Copy it down (with page numbers!) and explain why you chose this piece of writing

Ethics or Cannibalism Questions- choose one setETHICS:

Does God still matter in a fallen world? Do good and evil still matter in a world without rules?

Do the characters show their moral characters? How?

How does the son show his trust and faith in God in such a violent world?

Can hope stay alive in the hearts of man in the face of utter darkness and violence?

Can purity be as strong as evil?

CANNIBALISM

The world has ended as we know it. If there are no fish or birds or plants to eat, how long can humans exist?

Could they come up with a new way to live without resorting to cannibalism?

Is cannibalism to be expected? Is cannibalism acceptable in disasters? What real-life cannibalistic events have occurred in the past?

At what point does man lose his humanity?

Does life ever lose its value?

DEATH

What do we read about death in the novel?

What imagery is composed to show us death?

In Pairs:

Find at least 2 statements /quotes about death

in The Road

to share with the class (with page numbers!)

DeathDeath is a key theme of the novel.

Death is present from the very beginning, through the description of a dead landscape and continues throughout in its relentless pursuit of the man and the boy.

The man and boy are on the run from death. Death takes the form of cannibals, murderers, illness, starvation, the cold, death of society (morals etc) and suicide.

Death surrounds the man and boy, whether it is through the dead landscape or the extinct animals or the dead bodies and charred remains.

Even the man’s good dreams are marred by death because he knows that when his dreams are not about the dangers he faces then death is coming.

Personification is the technique of attributing human characteristics to something inanimate.

Personifying death makes death horrifying and haunting because it gives the impression that death is actually someone stalking the man and the boy.

Ely states:

‘When we’re all gone at last then there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it with.’

How does this statement make death seem so horrifying?

Death was previously personified as a lover by the man’s wife:

“You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I’ve taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot.”

Here death’s services are seen as positive. A mother turning away from her child for death says a lot about the world in which they live. It is almost unimaginable.

This is also the ultimate betrayal, the ultimate infidelity.

Death is inevitable. But in The Road Death seems closer than normal and more sinister because of that.

It appears to stalk each and every character.

What do you think makes death such a scary figure in this novel?

PATERNAL LOVE

What is paternal love? What examples from other literature can you think of?

  What examples of paternal love from the novel can

you remember? Write them down- try and find page numbers/quotes

  

 The theme of paternal love is ubiquitous (ever-present) given the

relationship of the two protagonists. The man's thirst for survival is fuelled by

the love for his son. While the man may expect his own death, he lives in

order to seek life for the boy. Unlike his wife in her suicide, the man does not

wish to "save" his son from civilisation's destruction, rape, murder, and

cannibalism by killing him pre-emptively.

The man's love for his son does drive him to ensure his son's survival. The

man frequently demonstrates the strength of this love, most obviously in his

unflinching decision to shoot and kill the man who threatens the boy's life.

Throughout the entire journey, the man does not kill out of malice or for

food. He only hurts others (the man who attacks the boy and the thief who

takes their cart) when they have threatened the boy's survival.

  

 Paternal Love

by Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserable)My child! oh, only blessing Heaven allows me!Others have parents, brothers, kinsmen, friends,A wife, a husband, vassals, followers,Ancestors, and allies, or many children.I have but thee, thee only. Some are rich;Thou art my treasure, thou art all my riches.And some believe in angels; I believeIn nothing but thy soul. Others have youth,And woman's love, and pride, and grace, and health;Others are beautiful; thou art my beauty,Thou art my home, my country and my kin,My wife, my mother, sister, friend--my child!My bliss, my wealth, my worship, and my law,My Universe! Oh, by all other thingsMy soul is tortured. If I should ever lose thee--Horrible thought! I cannot utter it.Smile, for thy smile is like thy mother's smiling.She, too, was fair; you have a trick like her,Of passing oft your hand athwart your browAs though to clear it. Innocence still lovesA brow unclouded and an azure eye.To me thou seem'st clothed in a holy halo,My soul beholds thy soul through thy fair body;E'en when my eyes are shut, I see thee still;Thou art my daylight, and sometimes I wishThat Heaven had made me blind that thou might'st beThe sun that lighted up the world for me.

  

Copy this quote and explain its significance

“He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling the intestate

earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals

trembling like groundfoxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

Significance:

Earth continuing on oblivious to the suffering of its remaining inhabitants

The Earth is in its own death from whatever calamity has struck- no future, no means of survival for its survivors

Hunted animals- represent the man and the boy, living in spite of the Earth’s disinterest, witnessing this wasteland

 

SURVIVAL AND RESILIENCE

1. In groups, draw a grid of four - Write the theme of Survival and Resilience in the centre.

2. Add in the four following questions- one in each quarter:

To survive you must hold onto hope. Is this always true?

What makes the father survive and what does he do to

survive?

Is Survival at all costs an acceptable principle to live by?

Explain how this relates to the novel.

The boy’s mother gives up. Should she have fought harder to

survive? OR What makes the boy survive, even after his father

dies?•All questions relate to the novel- find evidence (quotes!!) to support your ideas.•HANDOUT about this theme at the end of the lesson

What is the significance of this quote?

You wanted to know what the bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?

Yes.

He sat there cowled in the blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he said.

Yes. We’re still the good guys.”

Significance Shows the depth of the man’s love for the boy Shows son’s growing concerns Shows difference morality between the two. To the man his killing is justified because it was committed to the act of saving his son. Meanwhile his son is worried that they may be turning bad.

Theme Hand out Creation

In your group decide on one of the following theme:◦ Versions of Reality◦ Violence◦ Trust◦ Good vs. Evil◦ Love◦ Mortality◦ Other?

Your group is to create notes on your chosen theme on the A4 paper provided

Things to add:◦ How your theme is shown in the novel?◦ Examples and evidence- quotes?◦ What was McCarthy trying to show by adding this theme/using it?◦ Any other important pieces of information you can think of. You will need to present your

information to the class- ◦ Note: Your posters will be photocopied and used as class notes.

What is the significance? “The world shrinking down about a core or parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion. Colors. Then names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things one believed to be true. More fragile that he would have thought. How much was gone already?”

Significance

Post-apocalyptic world reduced to basic elements

Names of things slowly being forgotten by the remaining humans, following the things themselves into oblivion (colours, food, birds…)

Eventually the capacity to feel hope, empathy, love, emotion…

While in the absence of naming, memory, and narration- the object/concept no longer exists in a meaningful way.

The Boy and The Man Write notes on THE BOY in relation to the following:

Appearance

Dialogue

Interaction with characters

Emotions/reactions to events or people

Actions

Thoughts

Language techniques/imagery/symbolism

Then repeat for THE MAN

Quote significance? “Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground.”

Suggestions: Questions the existence of a higher power or afterlife

Idea that a person is the final judge of their own actions

Utter rejection of religious belief- moves novel further into the world of evil and violence?

The Boy•The boy (also called the son or the child) is born into the post-apocalyptic world. He knows nothing about the world before the catastrophe.

•He travels the road with his father and believes that he and his father are the "good guys" who carry the fire.

• In various encounters with other travellers on the road, the boy continually displays his faith in humanity and his trust in others. Despite their near brushes with brutal violence and death, the boy consistently pleads with his father to help others in need.

•He is inquisitive (asks questions) about the world and what he and his father are doing.

The Man•The man (also referred to as the father, who is called Papa by his son) travels the road with his young son.

•He believes he has been appointed by God to protect the boy, and he does so at all costs, even killing another human being in order to save his son.

•Unlike his son, the man remains deeply suspicious and even paranoid of other individuals and their intentions--perhaps understandably so.

•He is loath to approach other travellers on the road to offer them assistance, while the boy often wishes that he would.

•The man grows sicker throughout the novel, and his illness is shown in his coughing up blood.

The Man vs the boy

The man and the boy act as foils to one another (i.e. they balance each other out).

The boy is, to a large extent, morally superior to the man. He wishes to help those he sees in trouble and

fears becoming one of the ‘bad guys’ when they do not help.

The man, on the other hand, sees danger where the boy does not and has to do what is best for their

survival. This creates conflict between the black and white world of the boy and the grey world the man

knows they live in.When they find the people in the cellar the boy wishes to help but the man knows the danger of the situation

as well as the fact that they cannot help.

Morals are an important theme in The Road.

The Boy developsThe boy begins to be become stronger. He accepts the things he sees more easily and is not so easily disappointed by his father.

For instance; he sticks to the deal with his father about only spending one night in the company of Ely with very little fuss. The boy knows that Ely will die and equally knows that they could not save him.

When they come by the remains of people burnt alive the boy does not flinch or shy away. He accepts the scene for what it is – something horrific but part of the world in which they live. He is “strangely untroubled.”

The boy is also becoming more aware. He knows that they are being followed. This shows that he is growing less dependent on his father for survival and comfort (as shown by his care for the man when he is ill).

Genre and ‘The Road’ Complete the worksheet- GENRE AND THE ROAD

Cannibalism‘He found the bones and the skin piled together with rocks over them. A pool of guts. He

pushed at the bones with the toe of his shoe. They looked to have been boiled.’ Page 73/4

‘I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job.’ Page 77

Vs

What are the similarities between these two quotations?

What are the differences?

CannibalismAn important contrast in this section is between the

cannibalism of the men who boil bones, on the one hand, and on the other hand the fact that the father washes away

the blood and brains of the man he shot.

In both cases, the unwanted body parts are gotten rid of.

But the bad guys kill and eat people and leave behind the remains, while the good guys kill only when necessary and

then try to remove the awful reminder of what they have done.

FIND TWO MORE EXAMPLES OF CANNIBALISM: COPY DOWN AND NOTE THE PAGE NUMBERS

Dreams and memories

Why are dreams and memories important in The Road?

Dreams and memories

What dreams or memories does the man and the boy have?

Man Boy

Dreams and memories

What dreams or memories does the man and the boy have?

Man Boy

Remembers the perfect day with uncle

Dreams about caring for wife who is ill.

Dreams about a wind-up Penguin – begins to work without father winding it up.

Remembers some details from the events after the apocalypse

FireAn important symbol in the novel is fire. Answer

the following in your notes:

Why do you think fire is important in the novel?

List the things that fire might symbolise in The Road.

FireFire is linked to the moral well-being of

characters. The fires in The Road are frail or weak and go out easily, mirroring how easily a man could forget his morals and thus the fire

extinguishes.

When the man returns to the cannibals camp he finds evidence of a fire but it has extinguished. This might suggest that the cannibals once had

morals but that ‘fire’ has since gone out.

However, the man still has control over fire and as a result the reader can see he still has

morals.

FireEuphemism – a way of saying something horrible in a more pleasant way (e.g. he passed away is a

euphemism for he died).

When someone’s light goes out they are presumed to be dead.

Again, the man still has fire (physically and spiritually) and therefore lives. Others met do

not have fire (the burnt man, the cannibal) and they are dead.

FireThe fire symbolizes the capacity for hope and the ability to love, both qualities which the man and

especially the boy possess—as the "good guys"—qualities that are deeply challenged in

their experience.

The Crows-symbolismThe man and the boy have a conversation about the phrase ‘as the crow flies’. Look at the extract and answer the following:

What does the phrase mean?

What might the boy not know the phrase?

What might the crows symbolise to the boy?

Why is the boy disappointed?

What does this tell us about the world in which they live?

The Crows - symbolism

Ideas :

For the boy the crow is a symbol of freedom and possibilities. Crows do not travel by the road and are free to climb to great heights. High enough to see the sun.

However, the boy is disappointed because there are no more crows and therefore there appears to be no freedom nor possibilities.

The crow as a positive symbol is also slightly ironic in that crows are ordinarily associated with death. In fact it appears as though only death has the capacity to free the individual.

The Serpents - symbolism

What is your initial reaction when you think of serpents?

Write the first 5 things that come to you mind.

The Serpents - symbolism

The man recalls how some men found a ‘bolus of serpents perhaps a hundred in number’.

The men ‘poured gasoline on them and burned them alive, having no remedy for evil but only for the image of it as they conceived it to be.’

What does this quotation mean?

The Serpents - symbolism

The serpent is traditionally associated with the story of Adam and Eve and The Garden of Eden. The serpent, a symbol of the devil, tricked Adam into eating fruit from the tree which led to the banishment of Adam and Eve from paradise.

The serpent is considered to be evil and is associated with the devil.

The men burn the serpents because they associate the serpent with the devil and therefore with fire.

However, human beings meet evil with destruction here, just as they do in the world of The Road.

Is there any other way of dealing with evil?

The dead infant

“What the boy had seen was a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit.”

This is a horrific image and concept. What might this symbolise or represent in The Road?

The dead infant

This unspeakable monstrosity indicates the destruction of innocence and humanity.

The next generation, for the cannibals, does not matter.

The dead infant is a symbol of the utter death of man's innocence, and the boy has matured to the point that he knows his good motivations, his hopes, are going to be very difficult to fulfill.

The boy is the only remaining innocent, as far as we are aware, and it seems unlikely that he will be able to maintain his innocence if he is to survive in this world.

The seaWhat is the initial impression of the man and the boy when they reach the sea?

The seaThe sea is in fact anti-climactical.

It is grey and cold and in fact is more of a barrier to their progress than somewhere good to be.

What they find, instead of hope, is death:

"The bones of seabirds. At the tide line a woven mat of weeds and the ribs of fishes in their millions stretching along the shore as far as eye could see like an isocline [parallel pattern] of death. One vast salt sepulchre. Senseless. Senseless“

The Darkness"Is the dark going to catch us?“

Like death in a previous section, the darkness is described as a human stalker, chasing the man and the boy across the road in search of shelter and safety. The flare, usually intended as a sign of distress, just lets the darkness know where to find them. They have to rely on the brief bursts of lightning, representing only momentary flashes of hope or solace, to get where they are going.

Trout - symbolism

The Road begins and ends with images of Trout swimming in the stream.

Beginning: "Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current, tracing their perfect shadows on the stones beneath"

End: “patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery“

What do you think the Trout symbolise?

Symbolism - summary

Fire (lighter, candle, flare, camp fire) - Hope. Life. Morals. Also; destruction and death.

The wallet (and the photograph) – leaving behind the old world. Losing hope. Moving on.

Crows – freedom, possibilities, death

Serpents – evil, destruction of evil

The dead infant – death of innocence

Trout – the inception of the world and the idea that whatever happens in the world, the world has to deal with – there is no going back, no putting it right. The ‘map’ of these laws are found in the patterns of nature, it marvels and its mysteries.