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 * [[image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qs53l7Z3B0M/S8blVCi5-RI/AAAAAAAAAYo/SylJzkYGT5g/s1600/the-road.jpg width="305" height="500"]] ||  The Road

By: Cormac  McCarthy ||

About the Book: The book is titled The Road by Cormac McCarthy and was published on March 28th, 2007. The novel takes place in the United States, after a major destruction of the nation has occurred. There is ash everywhere they go, burned forests, abandoned houses and destroyed towns and cities. As for the situation of the story, there is a middle-aged man and his son, who lost their mother when she committed suicide. The man and the boy are traveling south and to the coast to escape the harsh winters of the north in hopes of easier survival.

About the Author: Cormac McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1933 to Charles and Christina McCarthy. He was born with the name Charles also, and then changed his name to “Cormac,” with means “son of Charles.” After moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, he eventually attended the University of Tennessee for one year, served in the air force for four years, and came home and attended the university in 1957. In 1959-60, after writing two stories in The Phoenix, he won an Ingram-Merrill Foundation grant for creative writing. Later in 1960, he left college to pursue his career as a writer. He proceeded to get married to Lee Holleman and had a son named Cullen. His first novel that he wrote was //The Orchard Keeper// in 1965. Some of his other works to follow include Outer Dark (1968), //Child of God// (1973), and //No Country for Old Men// (2005). Cormac McCarthy is known for being an ornate stylist and a remarkable writer, as he is increasingly talked-about for the Nobel Prize in Literature.



Characters and  Conflict: The main characters are a father and his young son who are without their mother or anyone that they know left on the earth. The father is very conscious about their survival and very protective of his son, while the son is kind-hearted and has a difficulty understanding what they have to do to survive. Almost everyone else alive either wants to kill them or are cannibals. They cannot stay another winter in the North, as they will either freeze to death or die of starvation. This leads to one solution…migrate south and to the coast. Along the way, they encounter several close calls and are on the brink of death, whether it is from lack of food or almost being killed by a raider or cannibal. Whenever they meet someone along the way, the boy always wants to help the person, while the man knows that they cannot help the person because they cannot trust anyone and do not have the resources to take care of anyone else besides the two of them. This creates tension between the boy and the father, even though the father tries to explain why they cannot help anyone else. Not only do the boy and father face troubles from other people, but also from freezes and fire storms.

Review: //The Road// by Cormac McCarthy is a dark novel, yet very enticing and powerful, which in return makes "putting down the book" not an option. Keeping you on the edge of your seat with his unique writing style, McCarthy does an outstanding job of giving the novel drive and a reason to keep reading. The story takes place in a destructed world that once had lush vegetation and blue skies and now has ash blanketing the ground and burned forests and cities. This setting grabs the reader’s attention and doesn’t let it go throughout the novel. Combining the connection family relationships and survival, the tone of the book creates an eerie feeling that is quite exhilarating. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to be kept on his/her toes and to read about a thrilling journey.

Theme: The author's perspective on the story implies that the post-apocalyptic situation in the novel can lead to discouraging events, such as weather or outside civilians, and even when a goal is achieved, the outcome may not be as desired.

Style Analysis: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;"> The unique style of Cormac McCarthy is greatly portrayed in //The Road,// along with several of his other novels. His writing style consists of a short sentence structure, along with a descriptive voice that would definitely take away from the story if it were written by another author. He also has a unique use of diction, which only adds to the feel of the novel.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">As for the sentence structure, "'The Road' is a dynamic tale, offered in the often exalted prose that is McCarthy's signature, but this time in restrained doses- short, vivid sentences, episodes only a few paragraphs or a few lines long" (Kennedy). As a part of the sentence structure, the dialogue can be described as, "...made up of several hundred isolated moments, scraps of dialogue and flashes of action" (Charles).

McCarthy's voice can be described as, "He has given his own kinetic language to the narrating minds of morons, cretins, madmen, psychotic murders;" (Kennedy). Another example of his powerful voice is, "It adds immeasurably to the staying power of a book that is simple yet mysterious, simultaneously cryptic and crystal clear" (Maslin).

Cormac McCarthy's diction is astonishing, since, "Mr. McCarthy's affinity for words like rachitic and crozzled has as much visceral, atmospheric power as precise meaning. His use of language is as exultant as his imaginings are hellish, a hint that 'The Road' will ultimately be more radiant than it is punishing" (Maslin). An example of this is, "The ashen of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone" (McCarthy 11).

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<span style="color: #689ccf; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 300%;">Works Cited: Charles, Ron. “Apocalypse Now.” Rev. of //The Road// by Cormac McCarthy. //The Washington Post//. The Washington Post Company, 1 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 May 2012. []

Kennedy, William. “Left Behind.” Rev. of //The Road//, by Cormac McCarthy. //The New York Times.// The New York Times Company, 8 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 May 2012. []

Maslin, Janet. “The Road Through Hell, Paved With Desperation.” Rev. of //The Road//, by Cormac McCarthy. //The New York Times.// The New York Times Company, 25 Sept. 2006. Web. 17 May 2012. []

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 2006. Print.

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 1000px; width: 1px;">kjhjjlkjkl <span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt; height: 1px; left: -40px; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 5604.5px; width: 1px;"> to Charles and Christina McCarthy. He was born with the name Charles also, and then changed his name to “Cormac,” with means “son of Charles.” After moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, he eventually attended the University of Tennessee for one year, served in the air force for four years, and came home and attended the university in 1957. In 1959-60, after writing two stories in // The Phoenix //, he won an Ingram-Merrill Foundation grant for creative writing. Later in 1960, he left college to pursue his career as a writer. He proceeded to get married to Lee Holleman and had a son named Cullen. His first novel that he wrote was // The Orchard Keeper // in 1965. Some of his other works to follow include // Outer Dark (1968) //, // Child of God (1973) //, and// No Country for Old Men (2005) //. Cormac McCarthy is known for being an ornate stylist and a remarkable writer, as he is increasingly talked-about for the Nobel Prize in Literature