The Road Part 7-9

Explain why the wind off the water does not smell like the sea.

All marine life is dead. The wind was blowing in salty ash from the atmosphere. The sea was basically dead.

Why does the son apologize for what he had said about the dead in the road?

As far as I can tell, the boy only says "Oh Papa" when he sees the burned infant. The Boy apologizes but the father does not know what the boy is apologizing for.

Predict what will happen after they leave the house.

At that point, I was waiying for something horrible to happen. Their time at the house was peaceful and good things dod not happen very often!

What do you think the boy represents?

By the time the story takes place, politics becomes irrelevant. For whatever reasons, the world is dead. One of my favourite quotes from the novel alludes to the boy as a Christ-figure, "He knew that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God never spoke." (chapter 1) Despite humanity now nothing but marauding sociopaths and dying old men, the boy has an inherent sense of empathy which often baffles the man. Walking through a landscape that might look like Hell, the boy continually shows kindness and even hope for mankind.

"We both have to say." (207) Why does the father include his son in decision making. Does he do it all the time? Explain.

By this point in the novel, the man has noticed his son has emotionally and spiritually matured even beyond the man's own point. The man also knows that he is going to die soon and the boy must decide his own future.

"People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didnt (sic) believe in that. Tomorrow wasnʼt getting ready for them. It didnʼt even know they were there." (168) What is Ely talking about?

Elie explains the futility of human nature. People get ready for the next day without considering they are destroying themselves at the same time.

Why doesnʼt the old man tell them his real name?

He doesn't want them telling other people about him.

How do you think the father feels, watching his son run in oversized shoes toward the creek?

He feels like a bit of a failure and just sad. He cannot even provide his son with proper shoes.

Predict what they will find in the next house they explore.

I have read this before so it is difficult to predict in hindsight. Still, given the tone of the story, I would have thought that whatever they find would not be good.

Predict what will happen when the father swims out to the boat.

I have read this story but I predicted that something bad was going to happen to the boy while the father was away swimming.

What do you think might happen if the man tried to fire the revolver, and a wooden bullet was in the chamber?

It probably would have exploded in the gun or not worked at all.

Where do you think the people in the forest got the baby? Why doesnʼt the father tell his son what he thinks?

They most likely stole the baby. The father knows the people are going to eat it.

Why did the people leave their food cooking?

They probably spotted the man and the boy and fled. They were cooking a charred infant.

What do the stone cairns represent? Why do you think they start appearing in the south?

They represent the past as well as a chronology of a dying world. People have carved patterns, names, and cries for loved ones.

What do they do when they arrive? Why?

They sit at the beach and stare into the ash filled smog. Really that is the only thing they can do. They both have to reconcile that their destination is as dead as where they came from.

How did the father know they were being followed?

They have a cart that makes tracks as well as garbage that people notice.

Predict what they will find if/when they arrive at their destination. Do you think they will make it? Why?

I predicted pretty well what happened. The land near the ocean brings no sense of solace or respite. The place is dead and scattered with various dangerous people. How could the place be any different from the rest of the world that is breathing its last gasps?

What has the father noticed about the boyʼs emotional growth from the previous year? Explain the boyʼs behaviour when presented with things left by the road.

I think that by the end of the novel, the boy is so used to seeing death and misery that he does not react to it. On another level, the boy has taken on the serene emotions of a Christ-figure. He no longer is shocked by human depravity-he only shows mercy and understanding. The boy asks less questions of his father and seems less afraid of death or what their future may have in store for them.

The father tries to prevent the boy from seeing the dead in the highway, but it appears not to bother him. Do you think this is true? Why?

I think that by the end of the novel, the boy is so used to seeing death and misery that he does not react to it. On another level, the boy has taken on the serene emotions of a Christ-figure. He no longer is shocked by human depravity-he only shows mercy.

What evidence is there that the boy is feeling hopeful about their journey?

I think the boy is asking fewer questions and is content with what happens rather than hopeful. He has seen such misery that little surprises him anymore. Certainly the sea is usually a symbol of new beginnings but, in this case, the boy remains subdued and accepting of what might come.

What do you think killed the trees?

I would speculate the massive radiation from some sort of nuclear attack killed the trees. McCarthy does not actually tell us what happened but he leaves clues that allude to a nuclear catastrophe.

The father has already made reference to his son being a god. What does he mean by that?

In various encounters with other travelers on the road, the boy continually displays his faith in humanity and his humbling trust in others. Despite their near brushes with brutal violence and death, the boy consistently pleads with his father to help others in need. The boy becomes a Christ-figure. He shows empathy in a world that has none: he shows goodness in a world with nothing but evil.

"I think maybe they are watching, he said. They are watching for a thing that even death cannot undo and if they do not see it they will turn away from us and they will not come back." (210) To whom is the man referring? Why do you think that? What could be a thing that death cannot undo?

Really we are not sure what the man is referring to. "They" could be wandering marauders but, in any case, there was something that even death could not undo. I'm thinking this might be the love the man has for his son but that's just my guess.

What do you think the dream of the snakes represents?

Snakes have always been a symbol of evil in Western culture (think Garden of Eden!) The man connects with the snake dream because he experienced these snakes when he was the boy's age. The man equates snakes with the evil of human nature. The only way to purge this evil is to burn it. That pretty well has happened to the world in this book- the world burns and the flames end the misery that is humanity.

Why did the three men on the highway leave the man and the boy alone?

THey see that the man is carrying a pistol. They do not know the man has no bullets left.

Why does the boy stare at the deerhead for a long time?

The Boy stares for a long time at the mounted deer head in the store. The boy has never known nature and animals as they had been prior to the apocalypse. An animal that used to live on his planet captivates him. The deer is dead but then again, so is the world.

Do you think the disaster was truly worldwide, or might it have been confined to just the one continent? Why? What evidence is there that everything has been destroyed?

The apocalypse would seem that way. There is nothing but devastation. Animals are dead and the atmosphere is chocking on ash. The sea feels and smells dead. There is nothing to tell us that anywhere else is different.

Why does the father let the son play in the surf?

The boy had never experienced the ocean before.

Why do you think the boy gives some food to Ely, though Ely admits he would not do the same?

The boy is good and compassionate. He has a loving heart and wants to help others. He shows his compassion throughout the novel in the way he thinks about and treats the people they meet along the way.

Suggest reasons for the new distance the father senses between himself and his son.

The father senses he is going to die soon. The boy senses this as well. There is going to come a time when they will be apart from each other. The boy's questions become less urgent. He takes on a Christ-like sureness about his dying world. The man knows the boy has emotional evolved beyond a scared child and does not need father in the same way that he once did.

What happens when they realize what the people had been eating?

The man and boy are horrified. When they begin to walk again, the boy says, "If we had that little baby it could go with us"

"If they saw different worlds what they knew was the same." (180) Compare how the man sees the world with how the boy sees it. What might it be like to never know about the world as it is now - to grow up in ruins and ash?

The man has the memories of a functioning world. He has context on which to juxtapose his dystopia with. The boy, however, has no context for a living world. He is stuck with tragedy and habituated to ruin. The boy cannot fathom what has been lost or what could have been. The man, however, knows what a retched state humanity has inflicted upon itself.

Explain why the man watches the boy eat, and why the boy says for him to stop.

The man's only reason for living is to take care of the boy. He likes to watch the boy eat because at least he is providing something for the boy. He cannot give the boy a life but at least he can feed him while others are starving. The boy does not like attention brought to him, especially when he knows that others are hungry.

Locate two examples of foreshadowing in this section. Predict the next developments in the plot.

The rock cairns with the pleas for help and the apocalyptic messages certainly foreshadow what has happened. Also, long before they reached the coast, their store of food was all gone. That can foreshadow the end for the man and boy.

What does Ely mean when he says, "There is no God and we are his prophets." ? (170)

There are layers of meaning to this. Old Elie could mean that there is no God because there is so much suffering in the world and He (God) has done nothing about it. It could also allude to the idea that the boy is the only God the world has ever known and people should be his prophets.

In the manʼs flashback, he recalls a time when they had slept in an abandoned pharmacy, and that the expensive electronic equipment had not been touched on the shelves. Why do you think it had not been taken by people? What does that suggest about the catastrophe that ended the world?

There was no electricity to enjoy these things. In fact "things" like electronics were no longer needed. The world was dying if not dead. If people were alive, they needed food and water, not electronics.

Describe what they find when they arrive at the beach.

They finally reach the sea, but the ocean is not blue, which disappoints the boy. As they sit together on the beach, the boy wonders what lies beyond the ocean. The boy goes swimming despite the frigid weather. After swimming, the boy cries but does not tell the man why. They make camp near the ocean.

"Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground." (196) Who says this? What does it mean? Why does he say it?

This bit of existential angst is brought to you by the man. These lines call into question the existence of a higher power and of an afterlife. The speaker indicates that the actions of humans on earth are not witnessed or weighed by a higher power--or even by those who have already lived and died. If there is a moral center, it is not defined by the principles once held by the dead, but by the individual, perhaps. A person is the final judge of his own actions.

Why does McCarthy continue to avoid specifying where the protagonists are?

This is because the protagonists are nowhere. Other than the ocean, there is no destination. Considering the world has ended and humanity is now left to cannibals and marauding sociopaths:the ocean may as well be nowhere too. McCarthy always infuses a sense of no refuge or destination in his story. This reflects the idea that humanity has played its last cards and lost.

Explain what this idiom means: "Beggars cant (sic) be choosers." (169)

This means that when you are in need, you have to be happy with what you get..... and that you shouldn't worry over the things you can't have.

Why do you think the boy cries afterward?

When he cries, it is probably for several reasons. The ocean has probably not met his hopes. The swimming was ok, but now that they have arrived, is it really any better than where they were during their journey? It's not even blue. The sea is actually a huge barrier to further progress across the whole east, so it is a major limitation on the boy and his father, contrasting with its traditional boundlessness.