The Road :: Journal 1

Pages 5-15.
Questions:

- Why does McCarthy compound so many words together? He uses words like "slutlamp, oilbottles, cashregister". It just doesn't seem needed to me.

- On page 10-11 the boy repeatedly says the word "okay", is this intentional by the author?

Parallel:

- On many of the pages for example pages 9-11. McCarthy constantly shows how the father and son are wrapped in blankets. "They sat huddled together wrapped each in a blanket..."(9), "Wrapped in the blankets, watching the nameless dark..."(9), "...standing there in the wind, wrapped in the their blankets, watching..."(9), "...wrapped in his blanket he walked out through the trees."(11). He makes it very obvious how the temperature is affecting their journey.

Contrast:

- On pages 12-13, a memory from the past is being told. It is the father's memory. He is at his Uncles lake house and having the "perfect day of his childhood"(13). This memory is from the past and contrasts with the present. It is showing how the present is such a different time since the apocalypse and that he will most likely never have another memory like that again. His memories of the old world are keeping him going on this long road.

Pages 16-31.
Questions:

- Why does the passage say "Gray as his heart"(27)?
- Did the father intentionally try to find his house?

Parallel:

- On pages 25-28, the son constantly repeats himself during their journey through old stores, houses and an earthquake. He keeps saying how scared he is. "I'm scared. Don't you want to see where I used to live? No."(25), "We should go, Papa. Can we go? Yes. We can go. I'm scared"(27). "I'm so scared. I know it's all right. It's gone"(28). This really shows us how young the son is and how inexperienced/innocent he is. It makes the reader feel sympathy for him.

Contrast:

- A part in this passage that really surprised me was when they were searching through an abandoned supermarket. They found a can of soda and it happened to be a Coca-Cola. The boy said "What is it?"(23). It really shows how the boy has only known this new world that he is growing up in. He doesn't know anything about the old world except for what his dad has told him. The contrast between the father and the son in this scene is very interesting. They both have grown up entirely different.

Pages 32- 53.
Questions:

- Are there ever going to be descriptions of color in this book?
- Is water a big symbol in this book? It seems as if it could be.

Parallel:

- On page 47, when the father is searching a trailer he comes along human bodies that have been burned. They are dead. "Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes." This passage to me parallels the apocalypse. The burned bodies resemble the burned areas that father and son are surrounded by. This shows the effects of the apocalypse and how lucky they are to be alive.

Contrast:

- Yet again we find in this book another contrast between the father and the boys lives and also past and present. On page 43, the father and son are looking at a map the father points out that the black lines are the state lines. Then they boys asks, "Why are they the state roads?" "Because they used to belong to the states. What used to be called the states." "But there's not anymore states?" "No". This really shows how the boy had no idea that there was an entire country called the United States. He never experienced being in a state or crossing over into other states when they were still around. From this passage it also let's us now that they are in America.

Pages 54-72.
Questions:

- How did the wife kill herself? With a gun?
- Will we ever figure out how the father and son survived the apocalypse?

Parallel:

- On page 67, after the father and son had ran away from the site where they had just killed the traveler. McCarthy describes the boy as "...so frail and thin through his coat, shivering like a dog". This passage parallels when they were swimming in the lake on page 38. "Ghostly pale and shivering. The boy so thin it stopped his heart". This really shows how malnourished the boy is and how prone to getting sick he is. Hence why the father constantly gives him as much food as he can. The boy is very fragile and the dad has to protect him.

Contrast:

- During this passage we notice that the fathers attitude/tone towards the boy changes after he killed the traveler. "Stop it. I want you to do what I say. Take the gun" "I don't want the gun." "I didn't ask if you wanted it. Take it."(70). He is very direct with his son and isn't treating him like he was before. I think this really shows how serious their situation has gotten.

Pages 73-93.
Questions:

- Was the boy that the son saw a real person? Or was he just hallucinating?
- How do we know that the people were "bad guys"? What leads the father to believe that?

Parallel:

- In this passage there is a repetition of the flame/fire. The constantly have enough wood to build a fire or have a flame lit. It's really not only in this passage, but the entire book. I think it is representing their journey and survival. On page 74 it says, "He blew the flames to life and piled the wood..."

Contrast:

- On page 77, the father carves his son a flute. The boy starts to play and in the passage it says, "A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin". This is another contrast of past and present. Is this the only music that is in the new world? What happened to the old world music? Will there ever be music again? The world without music would just fall apart and be a bleak and cold world. Almost like the world they are living in now.