The Road Extract Analysis

‘Coming across the man who has been struck by lightning (pp. 50-53)’

The extract encouraged me to feel further distance from the characters, the characters expressed no emotion therefore there was no emotional attachment for me to connect to. The writers lack of punctuation helped this feeling to be achieved as the monosyllabic tone discourages any reflection of emotion and if read aloud, your voice could not express emotion either, for example, speech, and speaker is never indicated by speech marks.

It leaves no opening for a new storyline as the novel consists of many ‘events’ but no prime build up and climax, the extract simply reflects another difficult encounter the father and son must have, and allows us to reflect on and question their actions of leaving the man to die.

There is an increase in tension, as it is one of the first difficulties we see the father and son endure, the reader is allowed little time to feel attached to the injured man or build any anticipation of what they are to find as they have found and left him within the space of a few paragraphs.

It shows no development as such on either of the characters, we are, however shown the characters multiple reactions to finding the man. We sympathise the boys desperation to help him, however this is contrasted by the father’s cynical yet practical view. Keeping his son away, not only to keep on moving, but to save him from further trauma and to keep the little childhood he has left, as it is his duty to do so.

The layout of the father’s wallet contents, could symbolise him laying down and leaving his previous identity, the man he has had to become he despises, but is aware he must move away from the past in order to protect his son and himself, his detachment of emotion is a necessity to their survival, from others, himself and through their conversation it would seem his son also, growing too much of a bond would only make the break of it more difficult.

‘Shooting the 'road rat' (pp. 62-69)’

This extract is the first truly violent act we see, it is also impacting as the man who often describes himself and the boy as the ‘good guys’ is the cause of someone else’s death, contrasting to a typical ‘good guy’. McCarthy evokes this response by highlighting the fact the ‘road rat’ is – until his attack - harmless, his intentions may not be, however he is regularly offering them help, food and supplies, our confidents is built towards him until his sudden attack on the boy, we realise the extent of the father’s protection and his lack of trust towards anyone. Despite the father doing this to protect and save his son, due to the boy’s innocents and naivety it could result in the opposite effect, he wishes to believe his father is the good guy but fails to see how.

McCarthy continues to employ the same language techniques, the tensions are built again by the regular use of short sentences; ‘found it. That’s a lie. What are you eating? Whatever I can find.’, speech continues not to be identified, and I believe the short sentences are used to prevent any emotional attachment towards any characters, this allows us to relate to the father and son as they are no longer allowed to connect with any other human and we must experience the same, as before we know they are either gone, have betrayed us, or dead.

Symbolically, the quote ‘the boy lay clutching his forehead covered with gore and mute as a stone’   could be fore shadowing the road rat’s faith, as soon he will be dead, with a bullet through his brain, on the floor, dirty and silent.  

‘Finding the cellar of naked and mutilated people (pp. 112-121)’

I found this episode very distressing, a highly emotive extract with a huge increase in pace and tension, McCarthy’s repetition of key words, phrases helped evoke this response, such as; ‘help us, please help us… help us’, and ‘ Christ… Oh Christ… Christ’. ‘Help us’ because it showed the peoples desperation and helplessness, but also ironically the father and son need help also and are unable to help themselves let alone the other people, ‘oh Christ’ because, the man is not shown to be particularly religious and his desperation to not become attached or emotionally drawn to help these people means turning to Christ, despite after all that he and the boy have experienced he has probably lost any faith in a God to help them. The events are horrific and distressing, as they are un naturalistic and difficult to understand they are extreme and leave us with expectations for the rest of the novel.

I felt the extract subtly represented the WW2 holocaust, ‘piled was a great heap of clothing. Clothes. Shoes. Belts. Blankets…’ there were regular similarities and comparisons between the two events; this highlighted to the reader the extent of their situation.

‘he had to put his hand over his mouth, the boy was clutching it and wouldn’t let go… the other held his revolver’ this quote I feel highlighted the helpless situation the people he just found are in, the man after losing his legs has no way of escaping, and hiding himself from the men, and the father after losing the use of his arms to cover the sound of his coughing begins to panic they will be found and likely killed.

The extract stood out to me form the novel as the increased suspense lasts a lot longer than usual, the first mentioning of the boy having to take his life is mentioned provoking the readers conscience and emotions towards the boy.

‘The baby on the spit (pp. 210-215)’

Again I found the extract quite distressing, we feel sympathy for the boy and what he is having to experience and see, the extract is dark and pathetic fallacy is used also to contrast the emotions across the previous pages, page 109 ‘The leaves were crunchy, fell to powder…’ – here the setting is dry, perhaps because there is nothing happening and it is a reflection of the character’s personalities, their lives have been sucked and drained out of them, they no longer feel or express emotion and this is shown through the dry, dead leaves, as they may as well be. However, page 110 ‘the leaves were soggy from the recent rain’ the weather has changed; although it remains bleak and dull, as it is often describe by McCarthy as ‘grey’ we are aware that something is about to happen, the rain could symbolise the boys tears from the distress, as well as the blood from the diseased.

To begin the extract I noticed regular mentioning’s of ‘rotation, circles and cylinders’; ‘rounds in the cylinder’, ‘let’s circle around’ ‘they circled the fire’ this regular use of a theme could symbolise both the rotation of the baby on the spit, but also the circle the father and son are trapped in, they need help, can’t help others, others can’t help them.

The extract not only stands out due to the horrific idea of what they have seen but also because we learn the lengths these people will go to, to stay alive.

‘Getting to the shore (pp. 227 - 230)’

Despite the ocean not being exactly what the boy had hoped for or expected I felt the extract was quite uplifting and lighter. McCarthy explains how the two characters after finding new; blankets, food supply etc. have a more simplistic and lighter chapter, structurally this is portrayed by the paragraphs being both longer and more fluent, there is no sudden time changes and the sentences have become longer and less complex with simplistic language.

The extract is key to the novel as it is what the two characters have been searching for this whole time, the disappointment that the ocean is not what they had expected is compensated by the boy’s happiness and satisfaction that they have finally got to the shore.

‘Like a man waking from the grave… dead childhood’ this quote describes the lives the father and son live, perhaps their happiness is almost too good to be true it is really only a dream and the father is suddenly a dead man who is waking to the reality of his life, perhaps they have been isolated and drained for so long they are practically dead, and the dead childhood symbolises the child’s loss of his.

‘The theft of the man and boy's belongings (pp. 270-278)’

This extract is another distressing an awful part of the novel. Despite our sympathy towards the father and son especially for having their possessions stolen their inhumane attitude towards the man leads our sympathy over to him instead as he is left naked, cold an entirely alone, we see the extent of the fathers lack of trust towards anyone, clearly this man has nothing, and is just as desperate as they are and yet he still cannot trust and help him, I believe this is because he lost his wife and his father’s mother so their lives would be made ‘easier’ and after that loss he is un able to ‘replace’ her and make her sacrifice and gift go to waste, this is also shown by the fathers final quote ‘I am the one’, he has come to believe it and must make his son realise he is the only one there for him, and there can only be him.

I was unable to notice and foregrounded symbols portrayed during this extract and McCarthy’s language remained simplistic and the sentences between the characters conversation remained short and blunt, again showing distance, an attempt to avoid any connection and a lack of personality.