The Road

Question 0

What is ‘the road’ about

Answer 0

Bleak journey of a man and his son across a post-apocalyptic landscape seeking survival and safety offered by the coast
- story of love, courage and innocence in a horrific world

Question 1

Author of The Road and when was it published

Answer 1

2006 by Cormac McCarthy

Question 2

What are 3 words that describe the tone of the Road

Answer 2

Morbid, dark and depressing

Question 3

What is the overall affect of the Road on the reader

Answer 3

• familiar becomes unfamiliar
• cognitive dissonance
  
  • confronted and uncomfortable

Question 4

What is the constant tone and setting of the road and why is it used?

Answer 4

Bleakness never let’s up

• “nights dark beyond darkness and days more gray each one that what had gone before”
• constructs horrific world
• damaged beyond repair

Question 5

What is different about McCarthy’s writings style and what effect does it have

Answer 5

Punctuation is sparse and unpredictable with wrong use of grammar
- suits and reflects world he is describing = wrong and unpredictable

Question 6

Why doesn’t McCarthy use names for characters?

Answer 6

Creates cognitive dissonance (physiological discomfort)

• keels reader intrigued
• gives characters sense of anonymity
  
  • take away what they hold dear - no longer as important as survival

Question 7

Why does McCarthy use flashbacks in a largely linear structure?

Answer 7

• disrupt order
• dreams vs. Reality
• maintain suspense
• creates disjointed narrative: mood of confusing and isolation
  
  • society is disjointed

Question 8

What can be said of the ending of The Road

Answer 8

Some sort of hope (with caution)

• “keepers of the fire”
• symbolise goodness of human spirit and will to survive

Question 9

How is man vs nature conflict represented in The Road

Answer 9

Struggle of survival in destroyed landscape

- land becomes the antagonists

Question 10

How is man vs man and man vs self conflict represented in The Road

Answer 10

Quagmire of human frailty

• good vs evil
• what classifies as evil when you are try to survive
• “can you do it? when the time comes?”

Question 11

‘The Road’ theme: deification of the boy by the father

• explain
• use quote/ example

Answer 11

Uses religious connotations and language when referring to the boy
Father treats boy as a redemptive figure
- ‘if he is not the word of God, God never spoke’
- John 1:14

Question 12

‘The Road’ theme: deification of the boy - the one

• explain
• use quote/ example

Answer 12

‘Yes I am, he said, I am the one’

- Matthew 14:62

Question 13

‘The Road’ theme: deification of the boy - light

• explain
• use quote/ example

Answer 13

” there was light all about him”

- John 8:12

Question 14

Why does McCarthy is spiritual references, especially in referring to the boy?

Answer 14

Help reader feel hope
Present boy as Jesus
- miracle and saviour
- goodness and compassion that will ultimately redeem world

Question 15

‘The Road’ theme: values vs. Survival

• explain
• use quote/ example

Answer 15

Conflict between betraying values of life to survive

• value of perseverance
  
  • “this is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They never give up.”

Question 16

How is parental love represented as a God given duty in The Road

Answer 16

Do anything to protect and ensure the survival of the boy

- “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill any one who touches you.”

Question 17

What drives the father forward in the will to survive regardless of his illness and encroaching death in The Road

Answer 17

Love for his son

- “the boy was all that stood between him and death”

Question 18

What does fire symbolise in the road?

Answer 18

Symbolises life, courage, and strength

• ability to see the way forward
• “keep carrying the fire”