Reflective: "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy

Tara Wilson

Prof. Deborde

Intro to Lit

Sept. 29, 2011

Reflective: "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy

 The 80 pages of “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy that I read, was showing the love between a man and his son. They are both on a journey north; trying to stay alive with the many challenges that are put in front of them. There are many challenges the boy and his father are put through on a daily basis that we have never needed to deal with. Nothing is handed to them, making me realize how much we take for granted. For example, McCarthy talks about the piece of blue tarp that they use as blanket. This blanket was a shield of protection from the snow and to hide themselves from intruders.  Nowadays, We are blessed with such cozy beds and much more intact security. Another example of a struggle we don’t have to deal with, was the fact that the little boy was scared of the dark but never able to escape it. We are able to escape it by turning on a light. The little boy was unable to do that, making being scared of the dark quite miserable. The boy was also freezing, On page, he talks about how cold he is.  Have you ever been stuck somewhere uncomfortablely cold and not able to do anything about it?

There are many things in life that we take of granted. This summer I had myself a perspective changer. I had surgery and the ability to walk/run and or barely move was taken away from me for a good amount of time. This made me realize how much you may take for granted everyday of your life. Do you take the ability to walk? Do you appreciate chartwells food or do you complain about it constantly? There are many things we consider essentials to life that are not given to the Man and the boy.

Cormac McCarthy also has a very unique way of writing “The Road.” There was no use of apostrophes and or quotations. I believe the reason for this is because McCarthy wants to show as little emotion as possible. He wants to portray a dark/grey setting. When apostrophes and quotations are used, I feel there is more life to the story. I also feel McCarthy maybe didn’t feel the need to use quotes and apostrophes due to the fact that there’s only two characters present in the story.