The Road

1
Unit 2 Novel Study

• The Road
• By Cormac McCarthy

2
Who is Cormac McCarthy?

• Cormac McCarthy was born in Rhode Island, NY on
  July 22, 1933
• He is the 3rd child of six (He has 2 brothers and
  3 sisters)
• McCarthy would have been a child of the
  Depression, WWII era
• These traumatic events shaped his writing to a
  degree
• Father was well to do lawyer, so Cormac came from
  a good family

3
Cormac McCarthy (2)

• Originally named Charles (after his father), he
  renamed himself Cormac after the Irish King
  (another source says that McCarthy's family was
  responsible for legally changing his name to the
  Gaelic equivalent of "son of Charles)
• Cormac was raised Roman Catholic. He attended
  Catholic High School in Knoxville, then went to
  the University of Tennessee in 1951-52

4
Cormac McCarthy (3)

• McCarthy joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953 he
  served four years, spending two of them stationed
  in Alaska, where he hosted a radio show
• McCarthy got his start as a writer at University,
  where he wrote and published two stories, "A
  Drowning Incident" and "Wake for Susan" in the
  student literary magazine, The Phoenix, calling
  himself C. J. McCarthy, Jr.

5
Cormac McCarthy (4)

• McCarthy moved around a lot living in Tennessee,
  Alaska, serving time in the Air Force, etc
• Left University to pursue writing, but ended up
  living paycheck to paycheck
• He was married three times and this could explain
  why most of McCarthys books do not have strong
  female characters

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Cormac McCarthy (5)

• Has written ten novels
• The one youre probably most familiar with is No
  Country for Old Men written in 2005 and a very
  successful film released in 2007
• The work we are going to read is his latest, The
  Road
• This work won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction
  and is a 2009 major movie release.

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The Road

• STOP!
• Listen to an Introduction to Cormac McCarthy on
  iTunes and take notes.
• Be prepared to write a short biography about
  McCarthy and pass in for marks based on the notes
  you took, as well as what you hear on the iTunes
  introduction.

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The Road

• STOP!
• Lets listen to the first 10 pages of the Road.
  Follow along in your book and be prepared to do
  some questions once the passage is done.

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Questions 1 SETTING

• In the rough present
• Urban Setting (They are living in an abandoned
  city)
• After some sort of end of the world situation
• Eg Destroyed trees, ash everywhere, dead lake,
  deformed animal, overgrown roads, the condition
  of their clothes, the food they eat, they wear
  masks

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Question 2 CHARACTERS

• The child or the boy, the man
• They dont have names so they can be symbolic of
  everyman, every boy, every family
• By being every person the audience can imagine
  themselves as the man or boy

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Question 3 Describe the SETTING

• 123 English Period 1

• Ms. Williams Description

• No Light (Nuclear Winter)
• Destroyed City
• Abandoned City
• Dead Lake
• Burnt Trees
• Mutated Animals
• Little light land is barren
• No Colour
• Roads overgrown
• The planet seems to have been destroyed

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Movie Still

• STILL FROM THE MOVIE. NOTE THE SETTING, THE
  ROAD, THE CART, THE MAN AND THE BOY.
• IS THIS HOW YOU PICTURED IT WHEN READING?

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Movie Still 2

• HOW ABOUT LIKE THIS? DO THEY LOOK HOW YOU
  IMAGINED?

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Question 4

• Look east for the light everyday because thats
  the sunrise
• There wasnt a sunrise, because sun dampened out
  by ash in air
• Light is often symbolic of knowledge, society,
  civilization, hope and goodness
• None of these things are left. He describes the
  land as godless

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Question 5

• Things have taken place a while ago
• Gas station gasoline only has a faint odor,
  station has already been rifled through by
  others, condition of roof, floor, etc.
• The fact that the water is marking time in years
  as it drips into flues long abandoned (clock
  analogy)
• The fact that they wouldnt survive another
  winter
• The overgrown nature of the roads
• Hadnt kept a calendar in years
• No trace of civilization, few people, abandoned
  road works, everything abandoned

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Question 6

• The shopping cart is what they use to carry all
  of their lifes possessions.
• Little food
• Tarp for sleeping
• The boys book
• Lamp, oil
• Extra blankets and clothes

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Question 7

• The mask is to keep the ash out of the boys
  lungs
• After nuclear winter, ash in the air would get in
  your lungs and cause cancer or black lung

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Question 8

• The country now seems to be godless
• Civilization has broken down
• With so little supplies left to forage for,
  perhaps others may steal what you have
• The man carries a gun for protection so obviously
  they fear others. Also, they are worried if they
  can be seen from the road. Mirror on their cart
  to see behind them.
• The knapsacks they could run away with if they
  have to

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Question 9

• They forage like at the gas station
• They probably search abandoned buildings for
  anything they can use for food, shelter,
  clothing, etc.
• The fact that they have so little is a good
  indication that they would not survive another
  winter here

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Question 10

• Feeling of Nostalgia
• Feeling of Normalcy
• Time gone by
• Habit
• Long for the past life long lost
• Of course he didnt expect an answers, but
  perhaps he was hoping it was all a dream

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Question 11

• The father can do so little for his child that
  this small act is one of tenderness
• He was probably read to as a child out of love,
  and so he longs to do the same thing
• He is trying to show the boy that he loves him,
  and show him that everything is okay
• It is also routine. It established a comfort
  level especially for a child. By reading, he is
  establishing a norm for his boy.

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Question 11

• In this scene, the man tries to comfort the boy,
  and keep him warm.

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Question 12

• The boy was probably scared
• Imagine the dark in a world where civilization is
  gone. Pitch Black.
• The father did this to shield his some from the
  tough realities that they probably face everyday
• Father did it to protect his son

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Other Topics to Discuss

• When he awoke during the night, he always touched
  his son why?
• Probably to reassure himself that the boy was
  still alive
• For the man, the boy was his warrant his word
  of God. What does this mean?
• His sole take left was to ensure safety of his
  son. The only holy thing he had left was his son.
  Each the others world entire.
• They travel the road, but always watch the road
  ahead and behind for danger. What is the road?
• The road is often symbolic in poetry and
  literature of life, choices, the journey of life