The Road 6

"You're not the one who has to worry about everything. The boy said something but he couldnt understand him. What? he said. He looked up, his wet and grimy face. Yes I am, he said. I am the one (110)."

            In the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy we have learned that the man always speaks of his son as of some higher power, like a god like figure, He puts his son on a pedestal, which is good because it ensures the man that he treats his son the proper way he should be treated when they are on this horrific journey. To compare his son to that high of a powerful figure shows that he loves his son very much. Also the boy might realize that he is old enough now and has been on this journey long enough to realize what is his position in the world. I think that it is his time to make a change, for the good of his survival and his fathers. He has been on this journey long enough with his father to realize what the world is like after the disaster struck. The boy realizes that it is his time to make a change in the world, and unlike everybody else he and his father didn’t die. They didn’t die because they were meant to be alive, they are meant to make a difference in the post-apocalyptic world. He was chosen by a higher power to get the world out of the turmoil that they are in, this is why they didn’t die because the son is the chosen one to make a difference. My reaction to this is that I believe that the wife had a big part in this book even though she committed suicide at the beginning of this novel. The wife gave the man and the boy strength to survive, she knew that the boy was the chosen one and I believe that she was the one that chose her son to be the chosen one because she saw what he was capable of after going on that long journey to try and find a peaceful civilization with his father.  

The purpose of this passage is to show how important the boy is in the book. Even though he is just a child his role in the book is a big one. The boy is the chosen one to make the world a better place, to get the world out of destruction and make a peaceful civilization. The literary techniques used are a comparison strategy, diction and a reflection by the father. The passage is comparing the boy to a God like figure because he is considered to be the “chosen one” to save the Earth out of the disaster. I believe that the God like figure in the book is the mother of the son because she sent a message to the son before she committed suicide, she said to her husband to treat her son right so they can survive. This is why I believe that the woman is the God-like figure. The diction in this passage is that of the Earth and the way it is described by the father, when he was growing up and how the world is after the disaster. The reflection by the father shows his son how different it was when he was growing up, there was structure in the society and everybody was at peace, unlike how it is now-a society of destruction. The overall effect of this passage is to show the young boy that the world wasn’t like this forever. It used to be a good place until the disaster hit. He reflects back on the past to show that this boy can make a change; he can be the one to bring the world back to life.

            In the novel, the word “human” means for the boy to be the chosen one, to be the one that saves the society from destruction. He will be the only to make a difference in the world because he has learned the values of his dad and those values have made the son a better person. Before the son was the chosen one, the chosen one was his mother but then she decided that she couldn’t go on any longer so she committed suicide. Our depictions of the future reveal that the present can change in an instant. For example the dad had his world perfect until this disaster struck their civilization. And for the son he never got to experience the world that his dad saw because he was born into a world of destruction. We use images and language to manipulate people’s minds by using images and words that people can relate to that they see everyday in their life. When they see these images and language around the society people think that they can use them in their lives.