Meaning of the Work as a Whole

My final thoughts on The Road are ones of mild awe.  The Road is a journey, an adventure to say the least.  It takes you through many hopeless nights, soul crushing days, and just plain exhausting experiences.  And so, with the conclusion of any adventure, The Road forces you to take some time to absorb what you read.  The Road questions much of what drives humanity. Specifically, The Road questions the relationship between morals and survival.  It is no debate that survival becomes much easier once you abandon your morals. However, this book challenges this idea, and forces the reader to question whether or not survival, by the means of eating a newborn baby, is truly survival.  

From my interpretations, the meaning of The Road is, to bluntly state the fact, humans are innately a "cruel species".  Most humans, under certain circumstances, will be willing to commit hideous acts to survive, whether or not this makes humans a cruel species or simply a rational species is up for further debate (however, through McCarthy's depiction of the main characters and the torch, it  seems as though he argues that this makes the human species innately cruel).  Furthermore, McCarthy then takes this idea of our innate needs for survival, and challenges them to our humanity, our sense of morals.  McCarthy does this through the contrast of his main characters and the world they are forced to endure.  The Road illustrates this horrible environment in which humans have turned to animals (and food).  The Road then throws two characters, still holding on to their humanity, into this world and has them face the challenges of survival which tests their morals.  In doing so, the reader begins to unravel this confusing, contradicting question.  Is to survive at the costs of your humanity truly survival?  Much of this idea I explore thoroughly in previous blog posts as this question is brought to the attention of the reader fairly early in the novel.  However, the conclusion of this novel and how it contributes to answering this question is a path left unpaved.

Towards the end of the novel, the man and the boy reach the coast. The man comes to the realization that he is dying and begins to give in to dreams of his wife and a much simpler time.  As discussed earlier, these thoughts imply that the man is giving into his passing.  In doing so, it is possible the man is losing some level of his morals as well.  While seeking to establish suitable conditions for his son's survival after his death, a thief steals all of their supplies.  The man and the boy chase down the thief and find him with all of their belongings.  At gunpoint the man forces the thief to remove all clothing and flee, an act surely sentencing him to death.  The boy protests and begs to spare the thief, but the man replies that the thief was doing no different to them by taking everything they owned.  After the thief’s departure, the boy convinces the man to leave behind his clothes in hopes that the thief will return.  In this section the man, for the first time, kills another man out of revenge rather than defense.  In past scenes, the man as been forced to kill an attacker and abandon a weak survivor (due to inability to care for him).  However, for the first time in the novel the man has essentially killed the thief out of revenge by casting him off without so much as the clothes on his back.  Furthermore, the man recognizes the wrongs of his actions as he allows himself to be criticized by the boy and seeks to make amends.  This sudden change in the man’s perception of right and wrong could be due to his impending death.  The man could have become more desperate for survival, or more accurately, the survival of his son.  Because of this desperation, he begins to lose sight of some of his morals and feels as though casting the thief off was the right thing to do.  This could be more support for the idea that as we become more desperate for survival, we may begin to lose morals and act irrationally (or in the eyes of some, more rationally).  

Overall, the meaning of The Road is a complex interpretation of human nature.  The Road analyzes the flexibility of human behavior and how it adapts to the circumstances.  It does this by delivering a fairly simple plotline with a brutally honest depiction of the post-apocalyptic world. It is truly a fitting novel for the discussion of human nature.

Why is it AP?

To be one hundred percent honest, I am not totally convinced The Road is of AP merit, or at least, certainly not one of the better books to read for the purpose of completing an AP question or assignment.  While The Road is an entertaining, deep, and advanced read, it is not quite what you would expect out of a standard AP novel such as Song of Solomon, Handmaid's Tale, and Brave New World.  These three titles generally go into great depths tackling issues with society and criticizing our social structure as part of a much bigger elaborate theme hiding just below the surface.  These three novels use technique and style as well as motifs and allusions to tell this second story. The novels flow nicely allowing for a fun face value read, while also providing layers for further analysis in class or in an essay for an AP exam.   While The Road certainly explores the nature vs. nurture debate and demonstrates the fluctuation of what's considered humane within society, and what's considered humane within a post apocalyptic world, I notice the novel missing some level of potential analysis.  Obviously, everything can be analyzed if you work at it hard enough, but some stylistic elements such as motifs and allusions seem to be missing.  The Road is a great novel that certainly elicits a higher level of thinking and reflection upon one’s self.  However, it is not a strong leader in the elaborate artistic style of writing.  Much of its beauty and meaning comes from the blunt truth of a situation.  This can be a breath of fresh air to any reader, however, it makes it more difficult for a teacher to use this novel as an example for strong technique and the use of literary devices to convey a larger theme.

This is not to say The Road is a terrible, unworthy book with little intelligence.  The Road is a great read with some elements that are certainly worth looking into on an AP level.  The Road has amazing character development and strong relationships between characters that very clearly alter their personalities and add an interesting dynamic to the novel.  As mentioned in a previous blogpost, the boy seems to act as an anchor for the man’s sanity.  The boy keeps the man’s morals in check and gives the man hope for the continuation of the torch.  In addition to this, the man tends to take all responsibility for the boy’s actions even when the action was clearly the boy’s fault.  This is seen in two different places as the boy leaves the gas on the stove on all night and leaves the gun on the beach.  In both cases the boy is clearly at fault, however, the man apologizes to the boy and takes responsibility for both situations.  In my opinion this is not normal behavior for the average father-son relationship.  This would be a good point in the novel to analyze how the father and the boy’s relationship could be affected by this new world.  It is important to note the shift in the man’s perception of right and wrong as he realizes he is beginning to die and will soon leave his son.  The man dreams more of his wife and happiness while becoming more brash towards the world in terms of survival.  The man focuses on survival more and begins to lose some value for morals, this is seen as he forces the thief to strip naked and abandons him in the road to die.  Needless to say this a post about the AP value of The Road so I will try to stay away from the analyzation of this scene but simply call it to attention as an example of the interesting character development that may be worth further study.  

The Road is a very intelligent, well written novel that is worth reading and certainly has some aspects (character development) worth talking about.  However, while the lack of motifs, allusions, and other literary devices may be a good change up and make the book a more unique read, The Road, in a  sense loses some of its analytical value which is very important for its use in an AP level course.

Style:

Much of The Road is one and the same with its stylistic elements.  The Road is a novel that is very much made up of these elements as they reinforce and support the major themes of the book.  This is to say The Road would be an entirely different novel if some key, subtle, elements were not at play.   This is not the first post on this blog to discuss these elements. However, as I mentioned, these stylistic elements make up the very identity of The Road making it very difficult not to discuss at some point in a blog post.  Without further adieu, the three major stylistic elements utilized by McCarthy are the lack of names and identification of characters, the grind of the novel, one day to another, never skipping a beat, and the reality of the darkness of the post apocalyptic world, down to every gory detail.  

The initial element noticed right off the bat is the peculiar way in which the novel identifies and addresses its characters.  Rather than giving the characters names, McCarthy choses to refer to the characters as the Man and the Boy.  Subsequently, each following character, major or minor, is identified by age, appearance, or gender.  As mentioned in a previous blogpost, this style allows for the reader to further identify with the idea of the Man and the Boy.  By not giving characters a specific identity, McCarthy is  allowing them to be anyone, even yourself.  This style is unique to The Road and helps develop some themes of the book as  relatable and realistic.  

The second stylistic element that separates The Road from other novels is its seemingly refusal to skip a beat.  Ged Jorgensen's blog, On The Road, illustrates this idea nicely.  As Jorgensen mentioned, the novel never leaves the characters, following their every move as well as utilizing minor stylistic elements such as the lack of paragraph breaks and drawn out descriptions of scenes and thought processes.  This is done to further leave the impression with the reader that this is, in fact, a grueling journey, no minor hardship is forgotten.  The Man and the Boy seem to take you with them on their grind through every miserable night of sleep to every long, aching day of travel.   You as the reader, experience and feel it all.  

The last stylistic element, its innate darkness, can be considered with little thought to be more or less a quality of the novel rather than an element of style.  However, on further analyzation it becomes apparent that this "quality" serves a greater purpose and ties quite nicely in with the above two elements.  Because of this, it is safe to make the claim that this is in fact an element of style and not just a quality of the novel.  The Road, on any level of analyzation, is impossible to be argued a generally happy, positive, and fun read.  The Road takes no short cuts in detail when it comes to gore and horror as it takes a journey through the limits of humanity as we see the deterioration of what we consider to be "civilized" and "humane."   In other words, the last stylistic element is that The Road is a really disturbing book.  However, as I mentioned in a previous blogpost, the darker side of The Road (let's be honest there isn't really a 'light' side), serves an ultimate purpose.  It creates a more realistic environment for our characters and illustrates the reality of the deterioration of humanity.  The Road then takes this darkness and contrasts it with the Boy and the Man and the themes surrounding their characters (carrying the torch, i.e. the good of humanity) for some very interesting insights on humanity and its innate tendencies and capacities for hope, mercy, and ultimately what it's willing to do for survival.  

While much of this blogpost is a brief recap of previous posts, it is important to illustrate some of the stylistic elements seen in the novel and how they interact with each other to form The Road.  As mentioned in the introduction, The Road and its themes are very much developed and defined by these elements.  The Road creates a gory and dark post-apocalyptic environment for the reader, then proceeds to introduce two characters into this world.  The Road does not give these characters a name or identity as it is apparent their identity does not matter.  The Man and the Boy could be anyone, the story does not change.  The Road then continues to take you on this journey with these characters through every drop of rain, ache of hunger, and fear for death.  All the while reminding you of the reality of this world and the true horrors of humanity that could be in a post-apocalyptic environment.  The stylistic elements of The Road neatly reinforce the themes of the novel in a unique way that captures the interest of the reader and allows for the next step of understanding.

The Beauty of The Road

Within the post-apocalyptic world of The Road, not much is beautiful.  The land is burned, homes abandoned, carcasses cover the cold ground, and the nature of human morals are all but forgotten.  The Road seeks to shock and disgust the reader at every turn.  From the horrids of a cellar full of human livestock, to a father wondering if he will be able to brutally murder his son if the time comes. The Road has everything to make a shiver run down your spine.  The Road never fails to tug at your every heart string while simultaneously describing the worst acts of humanity imaginable with no shortage of detail.  Many could call this a violent, unreadable book.  However, this is not a mindless act to freak out the reader or a novel written by an ex-horror movie screen writer attempting to cash in on all of the missed out gore.  The dark, messy, and brutal qualities of The Road serve a purpose, to establish a realistic telling of the world after an apocalypse.  In reality it's very likely humanity would turn against themselves given the right circumstances.  Social etiquette, morals, and empathy are all traits of humanity that are likely to dissipate very quickly as lust, hunger, and survival take the forefront of concern.  A novel that develops characters throughout this world and exposes them to these atrocities reminds the reader of the reality of human nature.  Faced with starvation and death, humans are capable of committing horrible crimes for survival.  No amount of exposure to a clean, caring society (in contrast), will be able to erase these tendencies lying just below the surface.  So what's the point of all of this?  Why write a novel with gruesome rapes, killings, and cannibalism?  Simply to prove a point that humans are innately evil?  Well, not exactly, by proving that humans are innately evil the writer is also proving that humans have the choice to be moral and good.  The man, being faced with the boys innocence, has proven that humans maintain the ability to uphold their beliefs of morals and "carry the fire".  Because the man wishes to protect the boy and the boy's innocence, the man has chosen to survive without carrying out these atrocious acts.   The man and the boy are both willing to die before they allow themselves to become evil.  Humanity has the choice to die as humans, or live as devils.  Throughout all of the pain and suffering of this world one thing remains good, the innocence of the boy, protecting humanity.  It is through this contagious light that the man's dignity remains in tact as he defends his son from evil.  The man's focus remains on the life of his son and the road south to a better life.  The land is burned, homes abandoned, carcasses cover the ground, and the nature of human morals are all but forgotten, but the beauty of the road, the beauty of innocence remains.

The Road: 

Introduction of Characters:

The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, is a post apocalyptic fictional novel set in North America.  The Road identifies it's characters with simple pronouns, never attaching names.  The main characters are no exception to this theme. The Road identifies it's two main characters as the man and the boy.  This style implements a sense of ambiguity and vagueness that ironically allow the audience to connect with the main characters on a deeper level.  By failing to identify the characters with names, the author has allowed for the main characters to be anyone, even you.  Their identity does not matter to the story as no one has retained their sense of self through the apocalypse.  Their names are irrelevant, only their actions bear weight.  However, regardless of their lack of names, these characters posses no lack in depth.

The Man:

From the beginning of the novel it is evident that the man cares deeply for the boy like any father would.  Due to this, the man often sacrifices his own self benefit to care for the boy and search for a better life for his son.  The man is focused on one thing, the survival of his son.  The man disallows himself to dream of his wife as succumbing to thoughts of past happiness is to lose focus and succumb to death.  Death, to the man, is the inability to protect his son, and therefor is not an option.  The man shows mercy in front of his son, maintaining the model of "the good guy", an attempt to raise his son with morals.  However, when the life of his son is threatened the man does what needs to be done, killing before the boy if necessary.

The Boy:

The boy, being just a child, possess many fears.  Fears of death, enclosures, and strangers dictate the boys life as expected.  However, one fear resides within the boy that plagues his identity.  The boy fears abandonment, needing to be reminded of the man's presence.  The boy's mother had left the family unable to bear the sight of her family being raped, killed, and eaten, an end she thought to be inevitable.  The mother told the man of her regrets in not killing the boy, prior to setting out into the night to die alone.  By the morning the man and the boy set out for salvation, and the boy had lost his mother.  While the boy carries around dark memories acquired by living a life in a world that as fallen he remains merciful and innocent, a quality protected by his father.