It is after apocalypse world where all signs of life are extinct. People and animals are starving, and predatory groups of savages wander around with pieces of human bodies stuck in their teeth. It is both oppressive and disheartening. McCarthy sets an atmosphere like one mediately after the world wars. It is not far-fetched to imagine the possibility of such a sad environment today.
Throughout life, we all go through rough moments where we think all is lost. However, we as humans always grow from these experiences and turn into beings with a new awakening and understanding of the world. In a passage from The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, the narrator describes a striking ordeal, in which a man is coping with the death of a she-wolf. Despite the cause of death being left ambiguous, this dramatic experience has a vivid effect on the main character—causing him to change and grow into a new man by the end of the passage. McCarthy uses eloquent and expressive diction to create imagery which gives the reader an understanding of the narrator’s experience, supplemented by spiritual references as well as setting changes, elucidating the deep sadness and wonder felt by the protagonist.
The first two volumes of Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” appear at first to differ in the typical style of extreme brutality noted in Cormac McCarthy’s previous works such as “Blood Meridian”. Despite the seemingly less violent events in the two novels “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” actually continue with the grim, and dark style habitually used by McCarthy. Not only do the novels follow the classic style of Cormac McCarthy’s works, but they take the style to a deeper and darker level. Aside from the shared style in “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The Crossing” the two novels also have a theme in common. Identity creation is present as the main theme in “All the Pretty Horses,” and “The
The Road: A Breakdown of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs In Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, “The Road”, a man and his young son find themselves on a journey fighting for survival through a dark and desolate world. With no identity or any hope in the future, the characters are faced with many compromising decisions. Two levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the physiological and safety levels provide the most motivation and validation for the characters’ actions throughout the novel. There are 5 major levels to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs; physiological, safety, emotional, esteem, and self-actualization (Maslow 1).
In the 2006 novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a man and his son struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Told through a lens of constant hardship, the book follows their arduous journey towards a coast in order to survive the winter. Throughout the novel, McCarthy shows that having hope enables people to persevere in dire circumstances because it counteracts the possibility of negative outcomes. First, the woman’s monologue about her death displays the despair necessary to abandon all hope.
In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, the protagonist, a man, with a name unknown to readers, encounters an infernal apocalypse. McCarthy transforms the man’s entire world when “the clocks stopped at 1:17”(53). His son, born into the downfall of society, becomes his only hope for the rebirth of the nation as they both endeavor to survive to see another day. With a hope of more survivors, they journey to the south encountering conditions that are unforgiving. Despite the world pouring down upon them with rotted corpses and landscapes destroyed by fire, they continue on the road with the reassurance to themselves that they are the “good guys” ( ).
The Dust Bowl was caused by a variety of unfortunate circumstances at the worst time. The dust bowl refers the 1930’s when during the Great Depression, powerful winds ripped off the top soil (the soil that is best used for farming) and killed many crops. The farmers that were hit the hardest were the ones in the southern great plains. This region was soon known as the Dust Bowl. In the off season, farmers would plant grass to keep the topsoil from being taken with the wind.
Have you imagined how the post-apocalyptic world will look like and will you choose try hard to survive or to die? In the book, The Road, written by McCarthy, the sky is dark. It’s cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. Everything has gone, only except some human beings who try every way to survive even by hurting and killing people.
In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road, McCarthy specifically chooses moments in the novel to get the readers anxious. An example of this is the scene in which the man and the boy come across a gang member and inevitably have to shoot him to stay alive. The shooting scene in the book is a significant moment that adds suspense, excitement, and danger. The scene starts with the man and the boy sleeping in an abandoned truck on the side of the road, until suddenly, the man is awakened by a noise down the road.
The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, is a novel that follows the journey of a father and son traveling south to escape the post-apocalyptic scene they were unfortunately put in. The father and son are survivors of some unnamed disaster that has occurred. As time passes by there is less and less food. There is also a lack of plants and animals. Other than scavenging for food, the only means of survival for some is cannibalism.
Ely, a character from the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is a realist. He gives the appearance of an experienced aged man, however underneath that façade he’s hiding a man who’s struggling with his principles and emotions. He disguises himself with a fake name and is devoid of any emotion. He does this to save himself from humans and the dangers their emotions can bring. Living in the post-apocalyptic, Ely loses the desire for tomorrow and believes the future is nonexistent.
To Change is to Grow Through the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the boy and the father show a great amount of change and maturity, while also learning to adapt and love. The story has a good balance of how different events can affect and impact someone's life in either a good or bad way. There are many events that change the mind and heart of the boy and father, but change can only be helpful if you learn from it and mature out of being afraid for things to happen. The stories main idea is very tragic in a dark, grey world where nothing ever good happens and instead of learning to live your preparing to die.
Some days they go hungry, the weather uproots their lives, and other hindrances place a awful, dark outlook on life. Cormac Mccarthy writes about a disgusting world. It is the dying of lie on the planet, the end of the world. Not only do the gruesome events in the novel led the reader to take an opposing view, but even the setting of the novel
The world that is presented in McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel is very bleak. Nearly all traces of what once lived are gone. It has all been turned into ashes. We are reminded of it again and again throughout the novel: “Everything covered with ash,” and, “The soft ash blowing in loose swirls over the blacktop,” and, “The boy thought he smelled wet ash on the wind,” (McCarthy 140, 2, 297). It is a reminder of that everything has died, that there is nothing left.
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, an unnamed father and son make their way across the desolate, ash-covered southern United States with only sparse resources and their hope keeping them alive and moving. Through trials and tribulations both the father and son come to maintain a certain idea of humanity and ethics, and though the father wavers at points, the son corrects him and they continue to “Carry the fire.” of humanity. The book ends with the father dying, and after staying with the body for three days, the son is met by a group of travellers who take him in and continue their journey with him, keeping the proverbial fire alive for the foreseeable future. Through symbolism like the aforementioned three days spent with the corpse of the father, and direct statements by characters, McCarthy clearly intends for God to be a large thematic element of the story, and through the somber and melancholic tones of the novel, offers an ending full of hope, not just for the son, but for humanity as a sort of rebirth, similar to the cleansing of sin from the world through Jesus’ sacrifice.
