The Road 5

"Maybe he understood for the first time that to the boy he was himself an alien. A being from a planet that no longer existed. The tales of which were suspect. He could not construct for the child's pleasure the world he'd lost without constructing the loss as well and he thought perhaps the child had known this better than he (129-130)."

In the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the father is telling his son stories about his childhood. Although these stories are true the son yet once again still does not believe what his father is saying because he is not used to the world as his father is telling him it. The boy is only used to the world after the disaster struck, he is not used to the world before the apocalypse. The way his father described the Earth when he was a child was like no other to the son, it was foreign to the boy and he could not understand why the Earth wasn’t like what his father was describing anymore. The father then attempts to tell specific stories of his childhood but then quickly refrains from doing so because he realizes that they all would scare his son because they all end in a sad way and he doesn’t want to scare his son. My reaction to this passage is that I agree with what the father did, he gave the boy a little quick description of his childhood life and what the Earth was like but he didn’t go into great detail because he did not want to work his son up. This was a good move by the father because if he told his son the stories and he got scared then this would create a lot of controversy and when you are out on a journey you don’t want any controversy, you want it to be as simple and straight forward as possible so there is no confusion. And plus, before his wife committed suicide she told him to take care of the boy, treat him right, be nice to him and in return they will be able to survive. If he told the boy the stories then he would break theses values that his wife had for them and something tragic could have happened.  

            The purpose of this passage is to show how smart the father is, he is willing to recollect the past of his childhood but he didn’t want to take it too far because if he did then his son would get scared. If he got scared then the boy wouldn’t be able to go on in his journey because he would be afraid of dieing just like the rest of the people because he would realize that the world wasn’t always like it is now, it used to be a peaceful place when his father was growing up. The literary techniques used in this passage are imagery. The imagery used in this passage help represent helps contribute to the sadness of the passage. The tone is sad because the man realizes that life is no longer what it was when he was growing up. The man is reflecting back on the past which makes him sad and it makes the boy wonder what life was like back when his dad was growing up. The overall effect in this passage shows that life can change in an instant, things are handed to you so be grateful for what you have because it could be gone in an instant.

            In the novel the word “human” means that you are in a dystopian society, trying to find a peaceful civilization to settle in when you are on a horrific journey with your father, your mother just committed suicide and you are now being descended upon as the “chosen one.” Our depictions of the future reveal that the present can not be wasted. You have to work and strive to be the best and you can not take anything for granted. Things can be perfect one minute and then everything can be gone the next. We use language and images to manipulate people’s minds by posting pictures of events that people can relate to.