Literature Analysis #3

The Road by Coramc McCarthy

Literature Analysis Questions

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

 

Literature Analysis Answers

1.       The novel is about a father and his son walking across post-apocalyptic North America. It is the middle of winter and it is always cold. The son is about 6 years old but has the maturity level of a thirty year old man. He asks questions that require deep thought to answer and most of the time he never gets his answers. His father only replies with “I don’t know.” They are walking across the land to hopefully get to the coast where they can be “safe.” While they are walking they have to hide from cannibals that roam around in their large diesel trucks. The only form of protection they have is a little handgun and they have very little food.

At night, while the boy sleeps, the father reflects on his past. He remembers his wife and how she left them. He thinks back to his childhood when the world wasn’t covered in ash and the sky was blue instead of grey.

The story ends with the father’s death and the boy moving on with another family.

2.       The theme is responsibility and dependency. The man is 100% responsible for his son. If they had lived a normal life, he would still be responsible for him, but in this new strange world, he has to make sure that he is always warm and healthy (as possible) and fed and safe from strangers. The boy is dependent on his father because he has no clue where they are going. He has to trust that his father will keep him safe and fed. He trusts his father, even though his father is barely able to keep him alive.

3.       The author’s tone is removed. It seems as if he is narrating a documentary rather than telling a story.

“ He went to see about the boy. He was damp with sweat and the man pulled back one of the blankets and fanned his face and then turned down the heater and went back to bed.”

“Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.”

“Houses or barns or under the bank of a road-side ditch with blankets pulled over their heads and the noon sky black as the cellars of hell.”

4.       Characterization- the author uses indirect characterization throughout the entire novel. “Just wait here. He said. I’m going with you. I thought you were scared. I am scared. Okay, just stay close behind me.”

Conflict- the world is covered in grey ash and there are few signs of life and it’s the middle of winter. “He just say there holding the binoculars and watching the ashen daylight congeal over the land.”

Flashback- the father often flashes back to times when his wife was still with them. “I don’t care. It’s meaningless. You can think of me as a faithless slut if you like. I’ve taken a new lover. He can give me what you cannot.” “Death is not a lover.” “Oh yes he is.”

Mood- the mood is of darkness and sorrow with not much hope. “We used to talk about death, but not anymore. Why is that?” “I don’t know” “It’s because it’s here. There’s nothing left to talk about.”

Motif- the road. “He fashioned sweeps from two old brooms he’d found and wired them to the cart to clear the limbs from the road…”

Paradox- the man tells his son of how life used to be. It is hard to imagine for the boy because he never witnessed it. “It’s a dam… It made the lake. Before they built the dam, that was just a river down there. The dam used the water than ran through it to turn big fans called turbines that would generate electricity… To make lights.”

 

Characterization

1.       The author doesn’t use any direct characterization. Two examples of indirect characterization are “Just wait here. He said. I’m going with you. I thought you were scared. I am scared. Okay, just stay close behind me.” This shows that the boy is scared like he should be, but he is brave. “You wanted to know what he bad guys looked like. Now you know. It may happen again. My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand?” This example shows that the man can be impatient and lose his temper with the boy. But it also shows that he is very protective and religious.

2.       The author is very static when he changes from character to character. The way he tells the story is very dry and stoic.

3.        The main character, the man, is static and flat. His morals never change and his goal never changes. He always wants to do what’s best for the boy and get him to safety. His main goal in the novel is to get to the coast unharmed. They succeed but they don’t find what they had been looking for. This discourages the man but he keeps on walking to find a place where his boy can finally be safe.

4.       I feel like I have read a character. There is no way for my mind to grasp the situation that the boy and his father are in. I can’t even picture the world that McCarthy describes.