Snyder - Quicklet on the Road by Cormac Mccarthy

The Road was written by Cormac McCarthy, a prolific writer with several acclaimed novels to his credit. McCarthy was born in Rhode Island on July 20, 1933. His given name was Charles McCarthy, his fathers name, but he changed it to Cormac, meaning son of Charles, so as not to be confused with his father. He attended University of Tennessee but left after one year to serve in the military. He returned to college but left again to pursue a writing career.

McCarthy published his first novel, The Orchard Keeper , in 1965, and received the William Faulkner Award. In 1979, he published his novel Suttree after struggling with it for 20 years. Its argued that this was his best novel and hes never surpassed it. However, with the publishing of Blood Meridian in 1985, McCarthy gained mainstream attention, and this novel was called one of the best novels of the 20th century by renowned critic Harold Bloom. McCarthy went on to publish his popular Border Trilogy. His novel No Country for Old Men (2005) was adapted to film by the Coen brothers and received several Academy Awards in 2007. McCarthy published The Road in 2006. The novel was adapted to film and released in 2009 to mixed reviews.

The Road is a novel set in a post-apocalyptic world where a father and his son are desperately trying to survive amidst the ruins as they make their journey southward. They must fight against almost insurmountable odds including combatant savages, cold, and starvation. They have two things going for them: a pistol and each other. Its their ability to retain their humanness while others have become barbaric that allows them to forge ahead to their destination.

McCarthy dedicates the book to his young son, and the book is considered to reflect a softer side to the writer yet still a poignant and raw vision of a possible future. The novel received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007.

A father and son are traveling through a burned, post-apocalyptic world. Its not clear what exactly has happened that destroyed most of life on the planet, but the signs indicate a global natural disaster or a nuclear holocaust. The father and son have survived for several years together but now must move south in what used to be America. The father knows they wont make it through another winter. The winters are getting colder and increasingly brutal. They are some of the only people left, and they are the good ones. Other human beings have become barbaric and lawless, and the man and the boy must defend themselves against such cruelty by remaining on guard and carrying a pistol.

When the world was first hit, the mans wife was pregnant. After giving birth to the boy, they started out on the road together. The boys mother grew increasingly frightened that they would be raped and eaten and couldnt living in fear of that happening. She killed herself. He and the boy are left alone, each the others world entire.

As they begin their journey, theyre pushing a shopping cart on the road. The cart has all their belongings in it. They carry the essentials in their backpacks in case they must leave the cart for any reason. On the journey, they encounter a burned man who sits down on the road, and they cant help him. They come across a group of men wearing masks and driving a diesel truck, at a time when its rare to have access to any form of fuel. One of the men comes near them, and after he threatens the boy, the father kills him with a bullet to the head. Further into their journey, they meet an old man who they camp with one night. Once they get to the coast, they are raided by a thief whom the father tracks down in a rage. He makes the thief return everything and leaves him standing naked in the road.

The other obstacles the father and son must face are threats of starvation and freezing to death. Theyre always running out of food and often go days without anything. The weather is brutally cold, with frequent precipitation in the form of cold rain or snow. They investigate old houses and businesses in their travels, looking for anything that might be useful to them, or for places they can stay and be protected from the harsh environment for a night or two.

One of their best finds is a bunker hidden in the yard of an average-looking house. Its stocked full with food, water, a gas-heated stove (and gas), clothing, soap and toothpaste. Although they cant stay because no place is safe for any length of time, this respite from their rugged journey allows them to refuel as they head south to the coast.

The father has a cough that becomes increasingly worse as they travel. He knows hes dying. He develops a fever as they get closer to their destination. He recovers but is weaker. Once they reach the coast, the boy gets sick and the father thinks hes going to die. However, soon after the boy makes a full recovery, the father knows his time is upon him. As they put down camp once again, he knows this will be his last time. He tells the boy to go on without him but the boy wont. The boy stays by his side until he dies.

The boy remains with his dead father for three more days, then covers him with blankets and heads out to the road. Someone is coming down the road. Its a man who asks him about his father. The boy tells him his father died. The man asks him if he wants to come with them, which includes a woman and a little boy and girl. The boy questions him skeptically, and when hes finally satisfied with the answers, he agrees. He says a final goodbye to his father and promises that hell talk to him and never forget.

Note: The characters in this novel are not given names. Even when the old man tells the father and son what his name is, he then tells them its not his actual name.

The father, man, Papa The father is described as thin with a beard, due to the situation. Hes very smart and resourceful. He loves his son, and expresses it easily. Hes a good father in that hes tough with his son but also shows how much his boys tender heart awes him. The father has the capacity for emotional depth. The boy is what keeps him going.

The son, boy The boy is young, but his age isnt given. Hes probably about 9 or 10 years old since the father can still carry him, but its not easy for him, and only because the boy is so thin. He has golden hair, as his father refers to it. He is very soft-hearted and wants to help everyone he can, or that he can get the man to agree to help. Hes a normal kid in that he becomes terrified when confronted with horrific sights or incidences. In the end, its apparent hes learned a lot from his father.

The wife, mother She is remembered by the boys father. She was pregnant when the end came, then she had the baby, the boy, and they started on the road together. At one time, she and the man were happy, which can be gathered from his memories of little moments they shared. She killed herself when they were on the road because she was afraid the bad people would rape her and the boy and eat all of them. She couldnt live with the fear anymore. The boy knows when she did it, so its when hes old enough to know what happened.

The burned man The father and son find this man ahead of them on the road. He looks as burnt as the countryside; his clothing is scorched and black. One of his eyes is burnt shut and his hair looks like a wig of blackened ash against his skull. The father tells the boy hes been struck by lightning.

The man in the mask This man is wearing a canister mask and makes the mistake of trying to go to the bathroom out in the woods where the father and his son are hiding. The man is emaciated, wearing filthy blue coveralls and a black hat with an emblem on it. The father ends up shooting him in the head when he grabs the boy and holds a knife to his throat.