ipl-logo

Narrative Voice In John Gardner's 'The Road'

630 Words3 Pages

Prisha Mitra
Mrs. Broe
ENG2DB-02
20 November 2015
The Road: A Guide for Analysis
Narration/Conflict
What is your novel’s narrative voice? (first-person; third-person, limited POV; third-person, omniscient POV)
The Road is narrated in third-person omniscient POV.
Consider the implications of this narrative voice (bias, etc.)
Third person omniscient POV gives McCarthy the ability to escape the “claustrophobia” of a single POV and expands the capacity of a deeper understanding. Not only are readers able to get inside the minds of multiple characters and dig deeper into their emotions and relationships, but we move away from the limited train of thoughts because every character will tell a story differently. We are able to see past the singular train of thoughts and observe how multiple characters interpret and react to the situation at hand. An advocate for this point of view names John Gardner says, “In the authorial omniscient, the writer speaks as, in effect, God. He sees into all his characters’ hearts and minds, presents all positions with justice and detachment, occasionally dips into the third person …show more content…

Describe while considering the implications of this choice.
The Road’s narrative is written in a disjointed narration. With the use of flashbacks and time-altering devices, this technique portrays stories of when the man and the boy had lived in a better life. This provides readers with a juxtaposition between the old life they had experienced previously, compared to the conditions they are facing now. Personal growth or innocence lost are the most common uses of this technique; however, The Road used this technique to shows the man and the boy’s long journey of misery and degradation.
Describe the primary or initial conflict in this novel. What type of conflict is it? (Person vs. Self, Person, Nature, Society Technology or Mr. Wood’s, “Machine”)
What other conflicts are present in your novel so

Show More
Related
430 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator characterizes the son as a young man who “loves the highway” (p.185), which is also the same as the narrator’s father. The two men both enjoy driving on the highways and both enjoy driving fast on the highways. While the men are driving they are both thinking about their girlfriends, with the father “thinking Alice” (p.183) and the son “heading for a date with that red-haired beauty of his” (p.184). That is shown when the two men both pass the narrator on the highway being very cautious when they do to make sure it is safe. Another similarity between the two men is when the narrator states “and like all Hill men, at least the two before him, wouldn’t he rather be playing ball?”

Read More
254 Words | 2 Pages

The most relatable archetype in “The Street” is The Road of Trials, which relates most to the short story, because Richard Wright goes through and has to overcome many obstacles in his life. During the short story, Richard’s dad does not return to his family at home, leaving them hungry and hopeless. As a result, the young boy, Richard, is forced to learn how to be independent, gaining the responsibilities of the man of the house. One day, his mother gives him the responsibility to go get groceries; she writes a note, shows him his way, and sends him off. While Richard is on his way to the store, he stumbles upon a group of goons who jump him, taking everything he has, including his spirit.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

I was close enough to reach out and tap them on the shoulders and still nether one of them saw that I was there”(47). This point can show that the author is using first person to tell a story to readers and cause the attraction to lead reader’s keep reading the book. First person is one way to make reader feel interesting about the book and to

Read More
2330 Words | 10 Pages

The Road was told in a third person point of view that throughout the story stays fairly omniscient – revealing each of the character’s feelings and opinions about the things they go through. While in this point of view, the main characters remain unnamed; only refereeing to them as “the man,” “the boy,” and other terms respectively used for one another such as “father” and “son.” McCarthy also leaves dialogue without quotations and some contractions without apostrophes, emphasizing the harsh reality of the world’s questionable end. All the Pretty Horses is also told in a third person limited point of view. Through this point of view we rely on dialogue between the characters to know the thoughts and feelings of anyone other than John Grady throughout their journey.

Read More
655 Words | 3 Pages

In brief, a reader of “Harrison Bergeron” can understand the thoughts of Hazel and George, because the author uses third person omniscient point of

Read More
1493 Words | 6 Pages

The aforementioned perspectives are explored through the limited omniscient third person narrator, who narrates in a factual tone and provides the lens from which events are viewed. Although the narrator is omniscient in the traditional sense, as he or she has access to the thoughts of all characters, the narrator is limited in that he or she solely follows Anton’s journey. Consequently, the events that transpired previous to and following the assault remain ambiguous and fluctuate as new information is introduced by supporting characters. Within the exposition, The Assault features Anton’s perspective on the events leading up to the incident.

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1457 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
493 Words | 2 Pages

The Road Final When there are hard times in life many people turn to those they love most those people are called family. The meaning of family is a group of relatives but family doesn’t always have to be people that the person is related to. Cormac McCarthy wrote the book, “The Road” to show people that family will always be there through the rough times. In the book Cormac McCarthy had wrote about a son and his father surviving after a huge catastrophe.

Read More
1333 Words | 6 Pages

Three Day Road written by Joseph Boyden, is a novel that follows the story of a young First Nations man fighting in the war, and a First Nations women living in the Canadian wilderness. The story of these two protagonists are told through each of their differing perspectives, making this novel one that is constantly transforming in order to portray important motifs and themes. Storytelling is one of the primary motifs that is seen throughout the course of this novel and is one of the methods that connects the two characters, even whilst they are apart. Boyden uses the complex motif of storytelling to aid in the depiction of several core themes in this novel. In Three Day Road, storytelling is often related to healing, hunger, and power.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

Through the use of literary devices such as figurative language, personification, and use of details, the author of The Street displays Lutie Johnson's relationship with the urban setting as overwhelming. Within paragraphs one and two there is a large amount of detail through word choice and imagery. Lutie’s overwhelming relationship is shown through the opening scene which is overflowing with imagery. The first thing the reader will imagine is an empty street with trash blowing around everywhere and a huge scary mess that is giving the urban scenery a very intimidating feel.

Read More
380 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel The Road it mostly dealt with assimilation theme. The setting behind this book is the burned American landscape in which a father and son travel and fight through hunger and the weather to go south in search of the blue ocean and white sand. What’s in their mind constantly is the thought of dying and the thought of not making it. In their travel they came across very few people and the people they came across were “bad” as they called them. Most of what they saw were dead and charred bodies of humans and not a plant grew through the land.

Read More
1297 Words | 6 Pages

There are many lessons throughout the novel that could be taught and learned in our world, this society, today. They may be true; however, the reasons the lessons are taught in the first place is because of the society being presented in this literary work, The Road. This gives the sociological approach a more appropriate understanding approach to the road. The society and the characters can be analyzed thoroughly and effectively this way. “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that will never be and you are happy again then you have given up.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

Family and Friendship are also main aspects of Taylor’s life, along with other main characters in the story, namely Jonah. As these are big themes of the characters lives, they become themes of the novel. The author of Jellicoe Road uses themes to build her characters. This is shown through not only plot but through language. Marchetta uses simple language techniques in a clever way that allows the most intricate characterisations.

Read More
1777 Words | 8 Pages

In “The Road Not Taken” a traveler goes to the woods to find himself and make a decision based on self-reliance. The setting of the poem relays this overall message. Providing the mood of the poem, the setting of nature brings a tense feeling to “The Road Not Taken”. With yellow woods in the midst of the forest, the setting “combines a sense of wonder at the beauty of the natural world with a sense of frustration as the individual tries to find a place for himself within nature’s complexity” (“The Road Not Taken”). The setting is further evidence signifying the tense and meditative mood of the poem as well as in making choices.

Read More

More about Narrative Voice In John Gardner's 'The Road'

Related Topics

Open Document