The Missing Message

            While reading The Road, I could not help but notice how unique McCarthy’s style of writing is. Namely, several key aspects of a typical novel are missing. With the absence of chapters, character names, and the sparse use of punctuation, one may question: is this just Cormac McCarthy’s unusual style of writing or are there some underlying messages behind it?

            Starting with the absence of character names, McCarthy may have done this to keep the story relatable. By calling the characters "The Boy" and "The Man" they are universal, allowing any reader to relate to the story. This is important because many readers may believe that an apocalypse, or something similar, is unlikely. The universality draws the reader in, allowing them to picture the hardships the survivors are forced to face. Ironically, commercial products, such as Coca Cola, are named. This further adds to the hardships, acting as reminders of how life used to be. In addition, he could have done this to reinforce the theme of nothing. By not giving the reader specific characters to become attached to, he emphasizes the sad, lifeless, and hopeless setting of the novel.

            McCarthy also uses little punctuation in The Road. Perhaps this helps portray the theme of nothingness. With a story line that is bare, and deprived of almost everything, the idea of emptiness is clearly depicted.

I think McCarthy writes so sparingly so that the reader will focus on the small, simple things in the story’s otherwise terrible, pointless life. 

Happy Past With Coca-Cola

             Although there are many events that occur in The Road, the Coca-Cola scene was one that impacted me the most as the reader. A father and son are on a journey to the south, which is their only option to survive. As they are walking, which they constantly do to live, they come across an abandoned supermarket. As usual in this run down society, everything is old and deteriorating. Somehow, a miracle occurs and the father finds a can of Coca-Cola in an old vending machine.
       
          By the door were two soft drink machines that had been tilted over into the floor and opened with a prybar. Coins everywhere in the ash. He sat and ran his hand around in the works of the gutted machines and in the second one it closed over a cold metal cylinder. He withdrew his hand slowly and sat looking at the Coca-Cola (McCarthy 23).

            Is it a coincidence that they came across this one last can of Coca-Cola? The father gave his son the last can of soda. The boy was never exposed to such drinks and did not know what it was. As usual, the boy listened to the father when he was told to drink it. This scene stood out to me, as the reader, because I can relate to the feeling of taking my first sip of Coca-Cola. At first it is strange because of the fizzing and bubbling, but one you get past that, the amazing flavor hits you.

          This scene especially stuck out to me because the father wanted the boy to drink all of it. This last can of Coca-Cola could symbolize happiness and hope. The father could have wanted the boy to experience happiness, but it could also represent the father's past. This could possibly be a way for the father to give something back to his son because the boy had not been able to settle in one place since he was a young child. It is possible that this represents hope because somehow they got the very last can of the soda. Maybe it is a symbol that there is hope and that life  will get better for them from that moment forward.

Will it get better for this father and son?

Could the Coca-Cola scene foreshadow a new and happy future or could it be the father's way of giving the boy happiness before they die?

The Fatal Tomato

A moment that truly stood out for me in the The Road is when The Man declined to take a can of home canned tomatoes. “In the pantry were three jars of homecanned tomatoes. He blew the dust from the lids and studied them. Someone before him had not trusted them and in the end neither did he and he walked out…” (McCarthy 22) This seemed very peculiar to me. In a society, or lack thereof, where cannibalism is a (while maybe not accepted), fairly common practice, The Man declines to take the tomatoes. I wonder why. The first thing that comes to mind is that maybe he is afraid the tomatoes have gone bad, they might not have been sealed properly. Though I think the more probable reason he didn’t take the tomatoes was that he was afraid they were poisoned or tainted. His fear of other humans is greater than his fear of starvation. He would rather take his chances with the elements of mother nature, than with the creatures she created.

A question one might ask is, why would anyone bother poisoning food? I don’t know why, but I think it is a reasonable assumption that The Man is not picky, he is afraid. Why else would he decline much needed vitamins and food? A possible reasoning for poisoned food would be that the previous inhabitants of the house was trying to protect themselves from scavengers like The Man.

All of this leads us to a conclusion that while The Man and Boy are desperate, they are not yet willing to needlessly sacrifice their lives for one more meal.

What Happened Here?

Reading through The Road, I am already becoming attached to the two main characters: the father and the son. They are embarking on what seems to be a long and hard journey to freedom in the southern half of the United States. A main theme throughout this novel is that there is  nothing left in the world besides the two of them making a long journey. While making their journey, they don't exactly have the ideal equipment for survival. All they have is a shopping cart filled with essential items such as tarps, blankets and food, but not nearly enough things to survive. They are forced to scavenge every house or abandoned building along their way so they can survive each and every day.

One event that really stuck out to me during the reading was when they entered into an old farm to look for food and saw a very graphic image. Cormac McCarthy describes this sight as, "Inside the barn three bodies hanging from the rafters, dried and dusty among the wan slats of light" (McCarthy 17). This isn't exactly the most inviting thing for a father and son to walk into, and the father quickly and intelligently advises them to leave. These hanging bodies can only be from a few things. One, the three people could have committed suicide in the past to escape the hardships of the world, or they could have been hung by people who were looking to eat them.

In a world where there is literally nothing left around them, everyone has probably thought of suicide as an escape from the pain at some point in their life. However, the more likely thing that has happened to them was that they were hung by a group of cannibals. Since the food supply is very low, cannibalism is one of the few ways to actually get fresh food. The father realizes that these bodies are relatively freshly hung, and that there could be someone around looking to hang them, so they quickly leave. Overall, this scene of these two characters is very uniquely described and puts a horrifying image of cannibalism into the readers head.

In The Road, Life is One Long Effigy

When I think of The Road, the story seems to be a window into a world of what was. That is to say, life as it exists is just a semblance of what it used to be. In today's reading, the text stated, "In the produce section in the bottom of the bins they found a few ancient runner beans and what looked to have once been apricots, long dried to wrinkled effigies of themselves" (22). The word effigy seemed emblazoned on the page. It stands out as so many of McCarthy's words do. I began to think that life, in the text, is an effigy. For those not in the know, effigies are define as:

effigy: n - 1) a sculpture or a model of a person 2) a roughly made model of a particular person, made in order to be damaged or destroyed as protest or expression of anger.

As it stands, the world around this man and boy is an effigy. This is not a world that exists as its supposed to; instead, it's a replica. A model. But that's the point of an effigy, it's just a replication. It can never be what it once was. You can try to recreate a Picasso or a Monet, but that's all it is: a recreation. The world that once existed is extinct. As the boy and the man go through their day to day actions, life itself has become a perverse version of itself. The languor, the tedium, and the necessity for food are now the norm, but we know, as the readers, that this is insanity.

Even in the best case scenario of the text, can life restore itself? If the world is destroyed: humanity, nomenclature, and society - what is left? Can there ever be a happy ending? I think not. Instead, the world is ruined - life is too. In this society, life isn't about living. It's about existence, and life is just one long effigy.

Blog Details

We will have a course blog this semester which we will use to carry on the bulk of our discussion of class discussion and secondary texts.  Each student is responsible for (1) posting at least 3 entries of at least 200 words (a long paragraph) during the course of the semester, (2) posting responses of at least 100 words to other people’s posts at least 4 times during the semester, and (3) reading the blog weekly.  You are welcome to make additional posts.

Content of the posts: The posts should respond to class discussion or the secondary texts. In those posts, explain what you found most interesting and insightful about the essays and/or how they helped you better understand the primary texts.  I don’t mind if you criticize the secondary texts, but your criticism should be thoughtful, insightful, and respectful of the author’s intelligence.  Responses should respond to the posts.

Schedule of Posts: In order to insure that there will be discussion each week, everyone will be assigned  2 weeks when they have to post, and two weeks when they have to respond.  You can choose when to make the remaining posts.  I will post the schedule in the upcoming week.

Grading: Posts will be graded on a scale of 1-20 points.  You can earn up to a total of 60 points for posts.

20 points will be awarded to substantive posts of at least 200 words that demonstrate an accurate and insightful understanding of the material and raise significant points for discussion.

15 points will be awarded to posts that are at least 200 words and show an accurate understanding of the material, but do not raise significant issues for discussion. (In other words, these posts are mostly observational.)

10 points will be awarded for posts that are at least 200 words and demonstrate only a cursory familiarity with the material or that significantly misunderstand the material.  (For example, such a post might only refer to an issue raised in the first paragraph or two of an essay, rather than the main argument of the essay.)

1-5 point will be awarded for posts less than 200 words.

Responses will be graded on a scale of 1-10 points.  A student can earn up to 40 points for responses.

10 points will be awarded for substantive responses of at least 100 words.  These are responses of 4 or more sentences which demonstrate a solid understanding of the material.

5  points will be awarded to brief responses, provided they contribute to the discussion.

Note: Any posts or responses made more than a week after the reading it refers to is scheduled will suffer a 5-point penalty.