Why do we have a setting?-
Allows the story to progress.
Enables us to draw context, from the time (when) and placing (where)
Establishes a story- influences events within the world, may reflect a journey.
Reflection of characters within the setting,
Creates the mood/tone.
Reflects society within it.
CHaracters have somewhere to be.
The Road.
The cellar, where the bodies are stored. Reflects societies decay. Significant of the books influence to horror, climax of tension and suspense, fear. Situated underneath the mansion, significant that on the road nothing memorable happens, but the carnage is still happening out of sight of the characters. this setting is memorable because nothing else is memorable within The Road.
The Bunker in a BINARY OPPOSITE, where food stored (cellar is also where food is stored.) Built to save us from the apocalypse (Cellar was built to feed the survivors) It is safe, secure and full of food. The characters do not stay there? Bunker situated in the front garden of a house, both settings link to modern humanity, show how the world has become twisted.
The Bunker is what was expected of the Post Apocalyptic world, yet the Cellar is the reality. THe Bunker offers hope while the Cellar illustrates decay.
Gatsby.
Wilson's Garange, bare. minimalistic. Honest man, achieves nothing. lives in the valley of ashes, the 'wasteland' in the shadow of the upper classes wealth, achieved nothing.
Gatsby's mansion, illustrates decadence, wealth, brings people together. Gatsby is dishonest yet achieved everything he could ever want.
Both are treated like a business, Gatsby holds parties to bring people together, illustrate his connection but also to create a good image for himself.
ROTAM
1. Hermit's Land- safety, structure, civilisation, religion, dedication/devotion
2. Sea- supernatural, silent, barren, isolated
The Patriot.
The town (previously) "roses all the way" "bells" joyous celebration as "the houses heave and sway" love, admiration.
The town, "only a palsied few" desolate, barren "stare" "rain washes"
Sunday 28 April 2013
Sunday 7 April 2013
Thursday 20 December 2012
Last Years
Pages 29-49;
"Ate cold beans they'd cooked days ago"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Late in the year"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current"- (page 30) References to time before (flashbacks)
"They set out again in the morning"-(page 30) Passage of time.
"He woke towards the morning"- (page 31) Passage of time.
"A few miles each day" (page 32) Telescoping through time.
"Dark of the invisible moon"-(page 32) Time expands.
"Within a year"- (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"Tomorrow came and went" (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"And then one evening he stopped and looked all about..."- (page 33) Time expands.
"Where he stood once with his own father in a winter long ago"-(page 34) References to a time before (flashbacks).
"In the morning they pressed on" -(page 34) Passage of time.
"They slogged all day..."- (page 35) Telescoping through time.
"It took four more days to come down from the snow..."-(page 37) Telescoping through time.
"Then it returned" -(page 38) Time expanding/a more abstract reference to time.
"They were all day reaching the river"-(page 38) Telescoping through time.
"It's getting colder every day"-(page 42) Time expanding.
"The tree had been there for years"-(page 45). More abstract reference to time.
Passage of the days:
"In the evening" pg 92
"In the morning" pg 93
"He woke in the morning" pg 95
"In the afternoon" pg 98
"Eternal blackness" pg 101
"Blackness... darkness..." pg 102
"When day broke" pg 103
"Within the hour" pg 110
Markers in the year:
"It could be November" pg 93
"Snow" - winter - pg 100
Telescoped time:
"In the evening... tomorrow... dark of night" pg 92 - all in one paragraph
"They might have covered three miles" pg 107
"They'd had no food and little sleep in five days" pg 111
Time expands:
Before (flash backs):
"He'd had this feeling before" pg 93
"He'd seen it all before" pg 94
Suspended time:
"The snow fell nor did it cease to fall" pg 101
Abstract references:
Other:
"In time to wink out forever" pg 93
"It takes a long time" pg 106
"In the early dawn at latest. Running the road in the night" pg 108
"We probably don't have much time" pg 109
Handling of time - Pg 113-133
Passage of days
‘In the night’ – p121
‘it was almost light enough to see’ – 123
‘The boy wouldn’t wake for hours’ – p124
‘He lay there a long time’ – p129
‘They spent the afternoon’ – p131
‘He wondered if it was even midnight’ – 133
‘By evening’ – p133
Telescoped time
‘...rose and set out.
He came across the barn...’ – p124
‘Afternoon... evening...light draw down over the world’ – in one paragraph p131
‘He was gone longer than he’d meant to be’ – gives an indication of time flying p130
Expanded narrative time
‘It was as long night as he could remember out of a great plenty of such nights...dawn was a long time coming...after a while it was day’ – gives a sense of expanded time p132
Before and flashbacks
‘Lingering odour of cows... and he realized they were extinct’ – p127
‘nothing in his memory anywhere of anything so good’ – p130
Abstract references
‘When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time.’ – p120
‘Phantoms not heard from in a thousand years rousing from their sleep’ – p122
Other
‘He would have ample time later to think about that’ – shows there are no deadlines/rushing p113
‘No time to look’ – contrasts to above quote, shows how we perceive time differs depending on our situation p117
‘stopping to rest each fifty counted steps’ – shows a new way of making references to time; whereas we might say every 5 minutes, the man uses steps as an indication of passing time p123
Pages 155-175
'He followed the man back and forth across the lawn' (Page 155) - Time is being expanded
'It took a long time' (Page 155) - Passage of time
'While the boy slept' (Page 156) - Passage of time
'The town had been abandoned years ago' (Page 157) - References to the past.
'In the night he was wakened by the muted patter of rain' (Page 162) - Passage of time
'They spent the day eating and sleeping' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time
'Impossible to tell what time of the day he was looking at' (Page 164) - Abstract reference to time
'The day was brief, hardly a day at all' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time.
'By dark the rain had ceased' (Page 164) - Passage of time
'They sat for a long time' (Page 167) - Expanding time
'In the long gray dusk' (Page 169) - Passage of time
'They followed him for a while' (Page 171) - Expanding time
Handling of Time (Page 176-196)
‘When did you eat last?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘You don’t remember.’
This shows the reader that there is no reason for people on the road to remember when they have eaten as they have no reason to plan meals. We only plan meals today because our day follows a set routine and we eat to keep up with this. On the road however, day and night have almost become one due to the ash and dust that falls, blocking out the sun. They have no concept of time and no reason for it so all they can really distinguish between is day and night so it is easy to imagine how a person could lose track of the days as they are all the same; as long as they are alive, they have no reason to remember when or what they eat.
‘How old are you?’
Similarly to the food, the old man is unable to truthfully recall his age as there is no reason for him to know it and no reminder of the date. Time and day are hypothetical things created by humans to gain a routine in life. However, mankind is dying out and everybody lives in the moment and has no cause to plan ahead, unless people meticulously count each day then it would be impossible to tell precisely when a year has passed and even if someone did work it out, what would be the point? It’s hardly like they’re going to celebrate. McCarthy uses the old man as an example to show that in the novel, the reader can never be certain as to how much time has passed, as the characters have no idea either.
‘How long have you been on the road?’ ‘I’ve always been on the road.’
Once again, in this section, McCarthy uses the dialogue between two characters to make the reader question the necessity of time; the fact that the man can’t actually remember how long he has been on the road for suggests that time is insignificant. The way that the man says he has always been on the road would suggest that time is standing still for these people. McCarthy handles time simply by putting a halt to it to show that it is just another thing on the road which is dying.
‘People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them.’
This quote is suggesting that for all the care we take over time, it doesn’t care about us. It is telling the reader that all the worry we have over keeping to a schedule is ridiculous because time is a made up thing and isn’t going to alter itself to suit us. All the people who worried and invested plans in the future, ironically, weren’t actually as prepared for the next day as they could have been where as those who take each day as it comes are surviving still as they had no expectations and don’t need time to rule their lives.
‘In the morning the stood in the road’
McCarthy gives the reader absolutely no idea what time in the morning they are talking about to once again highlight the lack of importance time holds for people on the road. All they have to go by is the road; they walk along it when it is light enough and sleep when it isn’t, to them it is completely irrelevant what time it is as they have no goals in life other than to get to the sea as quickly as possible with no real aim when they get there, meaning that they can take as long as they need to.
‘In the early afternoon’McCarthy uses slightly more detail in this section. This could be because this is the first time phrase used since they left the old man alone in the road so the man and they boy are paying more attention to time as they are feeling guilty, wondering where the old man is and how long he has been left on his own for.
‘In the night he woke in the cold dark’
McCarthy uses this phrase to lead onto ‘coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw’ to fit in with the image that cold dark night quite often symbolise death, something that we know is imminent for the man but the way the author associates it with time suggests that his time is running out quickly.
‘You said it would last a few weeks’ ‘I know.’ ‘But it’s just been a few days.’
This back up the previous quote in suggesting that time is speeding up and things are going a lot quicker than the man and the boy expected them to.
‘He’d slept little in weeks.’
This shows McCarthy skipping through time to move the novel on but also showing the rapid declination of the man’s health, he gets several weeks worse in the few seconds it takes the reader to read it, to emphasize the point.
Pages 197-217
References to the passage of the day:
'Early the day following'
Markers in the year:
'Three days. Four.'
Passages in which narrative time is telescoped:
'The following day'
Points at which narrative time expands:
P.g. 197- 'When three men stepped from behind a truck'- time expands because there is suddenly a lot more detail than the narrator usually gives; this is because it's a tense, potentially dangerous situation but also could be because it's a break from their monotonous daily lives, so every moment is taken in.
References to before:
P.g. 199- The man dreams of the past in which he visited a half destoyed library.
Points at which time is suspended:
During the mans dreams on p.g. 199.
Abstract references to time:
'They had not gone far'- The novel's characters use distance instead of time as a way to measure their progress, since time is now meaningless but their journey is vital to their survival.
Handling of time pg 218-238
Page 226: 'They stayed in the house for four days eating and sleeping'. Time is contracted into a short paragraph.
Page 229: 'Long days.' Time has suddenly moved on, we cannot tell whether it is days or weeks.
Page 230: 'An hour later...' Chronological order.
Page 233: 'With dark they built a fire.' Shows the turning of day to night.
Page 235: 'In the morning...' Chronological order.
Page 219-224: Several pages devoted to a short time, less than half an hour. Every little detail is told.
Page 228-229: Time goes very fast, one second they are at the abandoned house and in the next paragraph they are standing in a supermarket. Then it skips to 'Long days' and we cannot tell whether is has been days or weeks or months.
Page 234: Flashback, 'he remembered walking once on such a night...' he is comparing his old beach memories to his experiences on the beach now. He is remembering a better time. This is significant because flashbacks occur throughout the novel as a running theme.
Time- Pages 260-280
References to the passage of Time...
1) "He fixed dinner" could suggest evening time p. 261
2) "He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark" p.262
3) "In the morning" p.263
4) "He held him all night" p.265
5) "In the evening he opened a can of soup" p. 266
6) "...the fire had died down almost to ash and it was a black night" p.266
7) "The boy slept all day" p.267
8) "He tried to stay awake all night" p.267
9) "It rained briefly in the night" p. 268
10) "When he woke again" "Grey daylight" p.268
11) "In two days time" p.270
12) "They went on. It was already late in the day and it wa another hour and deep into the long dusk" P. 273
13) " ...stood there in the cold and gathering dark" p. 278
14) "In the morning" p.279
15) "he woke that night" p.279
16) "In three days" p.280
Markers in the year...
1) "The wintery dawn was coming" p. 266- This suggests that the months are later in the year. We depend on hints like the weather and how McCarthy describes the sceneary to establish/ estimate what time of the year it is.
2) "The earth itself contracting with the cold" p.279 This tells us that it is winter time or maybe the Earths condidtion is just becoming even worse so it is getting colder. Either suggestion could tell us that the novel has moved to the winter months of the year.
3) "What time of year?" p.279 This contradicts the hints of what time of year it is, because the man and the boy do not even know, so it is impossible to be certain what time of year it is.
Narrative time is telescoped...
1) "In three days they came to a small port town"- This passage of time has no mention of what may have happened within those three days,which creates confusion as the reader wonders why this passage of time has gone quicker than others as McCarthy often describes the days/nights events.
2) "In two days' time they were walking the beach as far as the headland and back"- Again time has passed quickly as we do not get any description of what has happened within those two days.
Points at which Narrative time expands...
The shooting of the Road Rat and the stealing of their possessions is an example of Narrative time expanding. This is too build up the tension of what The man will do to him. Also the narrative time could be expanded to show the true character of The man, and how The boy reacts to his fathers actions. The event goes for seven pages. McCarthy may have done this to show the raw emotions of the boy and how his fathers action have shaped and changed his view of him.
Points at which time seems to be suspended...
When The boy and The man are looking for their stolen cart, time seems to be suspended "They went on. It was already late in the day and it was another hour into the long dusk" the words "Another" and "long" create a sense of time going slowly. This creates tension as the reader wonders if they will find their cart as time seems to be running out for them before it starts to get dark. McCarthy suspends time here to build up tension, "They went on." makes it seem like they have been searching of their cart for a long time. This suspends time because we as the readers want them to get their belongings back, but it appears to be taking a while to find the thief so we start to doubt id they will find it.
When the boy becomes ill, time seems susupended. ""You have to stay near, he said. You have to be quick. So you can be with him. Hold him close. Last day of the earth" Time appears to be suspended becasue the we can sense that the man is worried for the boy, and it seems like he is getting worse so time has slowed down and is hanging on to this tense moment. The mans speech also creates suspended time as it appears like he is trying to prepare himself for the worst, which creates more tension.
Pages 302-307
Reference to before-'Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains' page 306
Time seems to be suspended and more abstract view of time- 'On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming' page 307
Time is telescoped 'He cried for a long time' page 306
Time seems suspended 'You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow' page 307
"Ate cold beans they'd cooked days ago"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Late in the year"-(page 29) Telescoping through time.
"Where once he'd watched trout swaying in the current"- (page 30) References to time before (flashbacks)
"They set out again in the morning"-(page 30) Passage of time.
"He woke towards the morning"- (page 31) Passage of time.
"A few miles each day" (page 32) Telescoping through time.
"Dark of the invisible moon"-(page 32) Time expands.
"Within a year"- (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"Tomorrow came and went" (page 33) Telescoping through time.
"And then one evening he stopped and looked all about..."- (page 33) Time expands.
"Where he stood once with his own father in a winter long ago"-(page 34) References to a time before (flashbacks).
"In the morning they pressed on" -(page 34) Passage of time.
"They slogged all day..."- (page 35) Telescoping through time.
"It took four more days to come down from the snow..."-(page 37) Telescoping through time.
"Then it returned" -(page 38) Time expanding/a more abstract reference to time.
"They were all day reaching the river"-(page 38) Telescoping through time.
"It's getting colder every day"-(page 42) Time expanding.
"The tree had been there for years"-(page 45). More abstract reference to time.
Passage of the days:
"In the evening" pg 92
"In the morning" pg 93
"He woke in the morning" pg 95
"In the afternoon" pg 98
"Eternal blackness" pg 101
"Blackness... darkness..." pg 102
"When day broke" pg 103
"Within the hour" pg 110
Markers in the year:
"It could be November" pg 93
"Snow" - winter - pg 100
Telescoped time:
"In the evening... tomorrow... dark of night" pg 92 - all in one paragraph
"They might have covered three miles" pg 107
"They'd had no food and little sleep in five days" pg 111
Time expands:
Before (flash backs):
"He'd had this feeling before" pg 93
"He'd seen it all before" pg 94
Suspended time:
"The snow fell nor did it cease to fall" pg 101
Abstract references:
Other:
"In time to wink out forever" pg 93
"It takes a long time" pg 106
"In the early dawn at latest. Running the road in the night" pg 108
"We probably don't have much time" pg 109
Handling of time - Pg 113-133
Passage of days
‘In the night’ – p121
‘it was almost light enough to see’ – 123
‘The boy wouldn’t wake for hours’ – p124
‘He lay there a long time’ – p129
‘They spent the afternoon’ – p131
‘He wondered if it was even midnight’ – 133
‘By evening’ – p133
Telescoped time
‘...rose and set out.
He came across the barn...’ – p124
‘Afternoon... evening...light draw down over the world’ – in one paragraph p131
‘He was gone longer than he’d meant to be’ – gives an indication of time flying p130
Expanded narrative time
‘It was as long night as he could remember out of a great plenty of such nights...dawn was a long time coming...after a while it was day’ – gives a sense of expanded time p132
Before and flashbacks
‘Lingering odour of cows... and he realized they were extinct’ – p127
‘nothing in his memory anywhere of anything so good’ – p130
Abstract references
‘When the time comes? When the time comes there will be no time. Now is the time.’ – p120
‘Phantoms not heard from in a thousand years rousing from their sleep’ – p122
Other
‘He would have ample time later to think about that’ – shows there are no deadlines/rushing p113
‘No time to look’ – contrasts to above quote, shows how we perceive time differs depending on our situation p117
‘stopping to rest each fifty counted steps’ – shows a new way of making references to time; whereas we might say every 5 minutes, the man uses steps as an indication of passing time p123
Pages 155-175
'He followed the man back and forth across the lawn' (Page 155) - Time is being expanded
'It took a long time' (Page 155) - Passage of time
'While the boy slept' (Page 156) - Passage of time
'The town had been abandoned years ago' (Page 157) - References to the past.
'In the night he was wakened by the muted patter of rain' (Page 162) - Passage of time
'They spent the day eating and sleeping' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time
'Impossible to tell what time of the day he was looking at' (Page 164) - Abstract reference to time
'The day was brief, hardly a day at all' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time.
'By dark the rain had ceased' (Page 164) - Passage of time
'They sat for a long time' (Page 167) - Expanding time
'In the long gray dusk' (Page 169) - Passage of time
'They followed him for a while' (Page 171) - Expanding time
Handling of Time (Page 176-196)
‘When did you eat last?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘You don’t remember.’
This shows the reader that there is no reason for people on the road to remember when they have eaten as they have no reason to plan meals. We only plan meals today because our day follows a set routine and we eat to keep up with this. On the road however, day and night have almost become one due to the ash and dust that falls, blocking out the sun. They have no concept of time and no reason for it so all they can really distinguish between is day and night so it is easy to imagine how a person could lose track of the days as they are all the same; as long as they are alive, they have no reason to remember when or what they eat.
‘How old are you?’
Similarly to the food, the old man is unable to truthfully recall his age as there is no reason for him to know it and no reminder of the date. Time and day are hypothetical things created by humans to gain a routine in life. However, mankind is dying out and everybody lives in the moment and has no cause to plan ahead, unless people meticulously count each day then it would be impossible to tell precisely when a year has passed and even if someone did work it out, what would be the point? It’s hardly like they’re going to celebrate. McCarthy uses the old man as an example to show that in the novel, the reader can never be certain as to how much time has passed, as the characters have no idea either.
‘How long have you been on the road?’ ‘I’ve always been on the road.’
Once again, in this section, McCarthy uses the dialogue between two characters to make the reader question the necessity of time; the fact that the man can’t actually remember how long he has been on the road for suggests that time is insignificant. The way that the man says he has always been on the road would suggest that time is standing still for these people. McCarthy handles time simply by putting a halt to it to show that it is just another thing on the road which is dying.
‘People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them.’
This quote is suggesting that for all the care we take over time, it doesn’t care about us. It is telling the reader that all the worry we have over keeping to a schedule is ridiculous because time is a made up thing and isn’t going to alter itself to suit us. All the people who worried and invested plans in the future, ironically, weren’t actually as prepared for the next day as they could have been where as those who take each day as it comes are surviving still as they had no expectations and don’t need time to rule their lives.
‘In the morning the stood in the road’
McCarthy gives the reader absolutely no idea what time in the morning they are talking about to once again highlight the lack of importance time holds for people on the road. All they have to go by is the road; they walk along it when it is light enough and sleep when it isn’t, to them it is completely irrelevant what time it is as they have no goals in life other than to get to the sea as quickly as possible with no real aim when they get there, meaning that they can take as long as they need to.
‘In the early afternoon’McCarthy uses slightly more detail in this section. This could be because this is the first time phrase used since they left the old man alone in the road so the man and they boy are paying more attention to time as they are feeling guilty, wondering where the old man is and how long he has been left on his own for.
‘In the night he woke in the cold dark’
McCarthy uses this phrase to lead onto ‘coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw’ to fit in with the image that cold dark night quite often symbolise death, something that we know is imminent for the man but the way the author associates it with time suggests that his time is running out quickly.
‘You said it would last a few weeks’ ‘I know.’ ‘But it’s just been a few days.’
This back up the previous quote in suggesting that time is speeding up and things are going a lot quicker than the man and the boy expected them to.
‘He’d slept little in weeks.’
This shows McCarthy skipping through time to move the novel on but also showing the rapid declination of the man’s health, he gets several weeks worse in the few seconds it takes the reader to read it, to emphasize the point.
Pages 197-217
References to the passage of the day:
'Early the day following'
Markers in the year:
'Three days. Four.'
Passages in which narrative time is telescoped:
'The following day'
Points at which narrative time expands:
P.g. 197- 'When three men stepped from behind a truck'- time expands because there is suddenly a lot more detail than the narrator usually gives; this is because it's a tense, potentially dangerous situation but also could be because it's a break from their monotonous daily lives, so every moment is taken in.
References to before:
P.g. 199- The man dreams of the past in which he visited a half destoyed library.
Points at which time is suspended:
During the mans dreams on p.g. 199.
Abstract references to time:
'They had not gone far'- The novel's characters use distance instead of time as a way to measure their progress, since time is now meaningless but their journey is vital to their survival.
Handling of time pg 218-238
Page 226: 'They stayed in the house for four days eating and sleeping'. Time is contracted into a short paragraph.
Page 229: 'Long days.' Time has suddenly moved on, we cannot tell whether it is days or weeks.
Page 230: 'An hour later...' Chronological order.
Page 233: 'With dark they built a fire.' Shows the turning of day to night.
Page 235: 'In the morning...' Chronological order.
Page 219-224: Several pages devoted to a short time, less than half an hour. Every little detail is told.
Page 228-229: Time goes very fast, one second they are at the abandoned house and in the next paragraph they are standing in a supermarket. Then it skips to 'Long days' and we cannot tell whether is has been days or weeks or months.
Page 234: Flashback, 'he remembered walking once on such a night...' he is comparing his old beach memories to his experiences on the beach now. He is remembering a better time. This is significant because flashbacks occur throughout the novel as a running theme.
Time- Pages 260-280
References to the passage of Time...
1) "He fixed dinner" could suggest evening time p. 261
2) "He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark" p.262
3) "In the morning" p.263
4) "He held him all night" p.265
5) "In the evening he opened a can of soup" p. 266
6) "...the fire had died down almost to ash and it was a black night" p.266
7) "The boy slept all day" p.267
8) "He tried to stay awake all night" p.267
9) "It rained briefly in the night" p. 268
10) "When he woke again" "Grey daylight" p.268
11) "In two days time" p.270
12) "They went on. It was already late in the day and it wa another hour and deep into the long dusk" P. 273
13) " ...stood there in the cold and gathering dark" p. 278
14) "In the morning" p.279
15) "he woke that night" p.279
16) "In three days" p.280
Markers in the year...
1) "The wintery dawn was coming" p. 266- This suggests that the months are later in the year. We depend on hints like the weather and how McCarthy describes the sceneary to establish/ estimate what time of the year it is.
2) "The earth itself contracting with the cold" p.279 This tells us that it is winter time or maybe the Earths condidtion is just becoming even worse so it is getting colder. Either suggestion could tell us that the novel has moved to the winter months of the year.
3) "What time of year?" p.279 This contradicts the hints of what time of year it is, because the man and the boy do not even know, so it is impossible to be certain what time of year it is.
Narrative time is telescoped...
1) "In three days they came to a small port town"- This passage of time has no mention of what may have happened within those three days,which creates confusion as the reader wonders why this passage of time has gone quicker than others as McCarthy often describes the days/nights events.
2) "In two days' time they were walking the beach as far as the headland and back"- Again time has passed quickly as we do not get any description of what has happened within those two days.
Points at which Narrative time expands...
The shooting of the Road Rat and the stealing of their possessions is an example of Narrative time expanding. This is too build up the tension of what The man will do to him. Also the narrative time could be expanded to show the true character of The man, and how The boy reacts to his fathers actions. The event goes for seven pages. McCarthy may have done this to show the raw emotions of the boy and how his fathers action have shaped and changed his view of him.
Points at which time seems to be suspended...
When The boy and The man are looking for their stolen cart, time seems to be suspended "They went on. It was already late in the day and it was another hour into the long dusk" the words "Another" and "long" create a sense of time going slowly. This creates tension as the reader wonders if they will find their cart as time seems to be running out for them before it starts to get dark. McCarthy suspends time here to build up tension, "They went on." makes it seem like they have been searching of their cart for a long time. This suspends time because we as the readers want them to get their belongings back, but it appears to be taking a while to find the thief so we start to doubt id they will find it.
When the boy becomes ill, time seems susupended. ""You have to stay near, he said. You have to be quick. So you can be with him. Hold him close. Last day of the earth" Time appears to be suspended becasue the we can sense that the man is worried for the boy, and it seems like he is getting worse so time has slowed down and is hanging on to this tense moment. The mans speech also creates suspended time as it appears like he is trying to prepare himself for the worst, which creates more tension.
Pages 302-307
Reference to before-'Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains' page 306
Time seems to be suspended and more abstract view of time- 'On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming' page 307
Time is telescoped 'He cried for a long time' page 306
Time seems suspended 'You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow' page 307
Sunday 9 December 2012
Symbolism
The mountain- Power of nature, structures
symbolic- represents a journey, something to overcome and surpass ,ambition, representing of herself- having to climb a mountain meaning an obstacle, beating the world. their lives- isolation, intimidation
Water- cleaning and washing, quench thirst, crucial for survival
- symbolistic- essence of life, where life began, purity-
only piece of purity remaining in the world, hope
(page 129 'cistern filled with water so sweet' 'nothing in his memory anywhere of something so good') Provokes happy memories- linking to his past- happiness
Music/musical instruments- a way of escape, escape from the monotony and death within the dead world- draws inspiration.
Symbolic- a way of bringing people together, the man makes the boy a flute to apologies. Flute (page 81) 'he'd carved the boy a flute' a
'perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin'- a funeral song, to commendate the death of the world, final song, eulogy. 'ashes of its ruin'- a song made from the collapse of the world.
The sea- ultimate objective within the novel- end of journey, hope, motivation to get there, end of " graying " scenery, end of monotony. reminder of a past life, calm, tranquil, resting, peace.
The colour grey- lifeless, dull, monotonous, pitiful sombre ,
shows the graying and death within the world, no colour meaning no life no hope.- depressive constraining, lack o bleak,
Fire-
'carrying the fire'= fire meaning hope, salvation, the boy carries the fire because he is the new hope, another genreation and is even described as a " god " although it could be took as the fire serving a redmption, in that it is a constant burning of the lost world, a reminder of past times. however a fire cannot burn forever, reference to an ultimate end.
Sight/sightlessness- not being able to see the future, a bleak future, no hope. or being able to see the harsh reality of their surroundings- definitive doom.
sightlessness -oppressive state of world, disaster, blindness, carelessness, cruelty, forgotten, dull, perspective different people see different things, no sight= no hope, no life, tragedy. (page 250 'they went on in the perfect blackness, sightless as the blind' summary of whole journey, lack of hope, world is black dull depressing, almost delicate and beautiful, sense of no complaint runs throughout novel.
Coca Cola Can- (22)- 'sat looking at a Coca Cola'- astonishment, reminder of past, haunting, a 'treat' luxury, 'its bubbly'- never experienced it, shock, honour. 'I want you to drink it'- reminder of deprivation of Earth, wants to provide his son with some luxuries/presents, make him content, satisfaction etc, savour it last one they will see.
symbolic- savior, luxury item, deprivation of man, appreciation, consumerism- product used day to day
symbolic- savior, luxury item, deprivation of man, appreciation, consumerism- product used day to day
Sunday 2 December 2012
The road being the journey from life to death, however within a dead world the journey seems to be from a realisation of dying to death. Like a terminal illness. Ultimate Depressant.
The road being an important symbol to Americans representing a journey into the unknown, depicts freedom and exploration but in the world sees it as more of a curse- having to explore the old memories, a journey on a road- a constant reminder of the old world.
A deeper journey of epicness depicted through other tales in which the protagonist encounters many tests to prove himself or to find himself, like an epiphany, the road could represent a modern allegory, a series of events set to make the man judge himself, or for us to judge the man and realise that the boy is the real good guy.
on an unrelated note- The whole book sees the boy yearn for female company, we infer he gets upset when the father cries his mothers name- he needs the emotional bond a mother would give him, he goes straight to the woman in the new group as he finds comfort in her- this glorifies women within the novel showing their natural comforting qualities that we could not find within a father figure. It shows a need for the natural relationship between a mother and her young.
The road being an important symbol to Americans representing a journey into the unknown, depicts freedom and exploration but in the world sees it as more of a curse- having to explore the old memories, a journey on a road- a constant reminder of the old world.
A deeper journey of epicness depicted through other tales in which the protagonist encounters many tests to prove himself or to find himself, like an epiphany, the road could represent a modern allegory, a series of events set to make the man judge himself, or for us to judge the man and realise that the boy is the real good guy.
on an unrelated note- The whole book sees the boy yearn for female company, we infer he gets upset when the father cries his mothers name- he needs the emotional bond a mother would give him, he goes straight to the woman in the new group as he finds comfort in her- this glorifies women within the novel showing their natural comforting qualities that we could not find within a father figure. It shows a need for the natural relationship between a mother and her young.
Reading homework.
‘Not with a bang, but a whimper.’ (T.S. Eliot) The man dies, the boy is safe.
Message board on About.com
Only with a certain naivety can we believe that the boy is safe, through reasoning of simply understanding that every other character within the book ( except eli ) has either been cannibals or thieves we must not jump to the conclusion that the boy is now living safely with this " new " family, as a simple reading the end of the book does seem to be a bit of a cop out- but this only reflects the rest of the book which doesn't really have that much going on within it to make the reader get excited- it is deliberately written to reflect the monotonous lives the characters experience, so " whimper " would be suitable for a description.
The ambiguity throughout this novel gives it a sense of timelessness. There are some great questions left unanswered at the end of The Road.I have read it a few times now, and I still don’t have the answers.
Amazon reader review
The Road seems to be deliberately written to leave us abruptly un-omniscient , i mean the characters are given no names- they have been left for us to sculpt within our own interpretations, giving the book an ending to answer all the questions would make the rest of the novels ambiguity pointless, only through the lack in description does the novel seem timeless in that it can leave every single one of us with our own view and sense of it, making it more personnel to us.
What happens is a redemption, of sorts, arguably absurd in the face of such overwhelming nihilism. In the mind of this reader anyway, this sense of hope is utterly inconsistent with all the despair and lack of trust that has preceded it.
More importantly, ‘what happens’ at the end of the story is not a consequence of any decision of the two protagonists, nor is it linked in a causal way to any event, character, or fictional motif or any other literary device in the story. What happens is a kind of much- desired, undeserved and unexpected, merciful redemption. The problem with this kind of conclusion in fiction is that a redemption resolution must have its roots in the earlier part of the narrative.
http://markrossiter.info/
This seems to be the most agreeable response, the writer recognises that any other ending would simple not fit within the rest of the novel as it ties in with the repeated hopelessness that has preceded it and it is a good point that with any kind of resolvable ending it " must have its roots in the earlier part of the narrative. " also the fact that " at the end of the story is not a consequence of any decision of the two protagonists " reflects on how the two characters do not particularly have free will within the book, they are driven to walk the road because of the events preceding it, its only fitting that the end would not be a decision made by them but in fact an unfortunate consequence of another action.
I’ve read The Road twice now and marvel at how McCarthy ties all of his story together. The book could easily be read from back to front and around again. Timeless is timeless. McCarthy knows this truth well.
John Holt, California Literary Review
Message board on About.com
Only with a certain naivety can we believe that the boy is safe, through reasoning of simply understanding that every other character within the book ( except eli ) has either been cannibals or thieves we must not jump to the conclusion that the boy is now living safely with this " new " family, as a simple reading the end of the book does seem to be a bit of a cop out- but this only reflects the rest of the book which doesn't really have that much going on within it to make the reader get excited- it is deliberately written to reflect the monotonous lives the characters experience, so " whimper " would be suitable for a description.
The ambiguity throughout this novel gives it a sense of timelessness. There are some great questions left unanswered at the end of The Road.I have read it a few times now, and I still don’t have the answers.
Amazon reader review
The Road seems to be deliberately written to leave us abruptly un-omniscient , i mean the characters are given no names- they have been left for us to sculpt within our own interpretations, giving the book an ending to answer all the questions would make the rest of the novels ambiguity pointless, only through the lack in description does the novel seem timeless in that it can leave every single one of us with our own view and sense of it, making it more personnel to us.
What happens is a redemption, of sorts, arguably absurd in the face of such overwhelming nihilism. In the mind of this reader anyway, this sense of hope is utterly inconsistent with all the despair and lack of trust that has preceded it.
More importantly, ‘what happens’ at the end of the story is not a consequence of any decision of the two protagonists, nor is it linked in a causal way to any event, character, or fictional motif or any other literary device in the story. What happens is a kind of much- desired, undeserved and unexpected, merciful redemption. The problem with this kind of conclusion in fiction is that a redemption resolution must have its roots in the earlier part of the narrative.
http://markrossiter.info/
This seems to be the most agreeable response, the writer recognises that any other ending would simple not fit within the rest of the novel as it ties in with the repeated hopelessness that has preceded it and it is a good point that with any kind of resolvable ending it " must have its roots in the earlier part of the narrative. " also the fact that " at the end of the story is not a consequence of any decision of the two protagonists " reflects on how the two characters do not particularly have free will within the book, they are driven to walk the road because of the events preceding it, its only fitting that the end would not be a decision made by them but in fact an unfortunate consequence of another action.
But the father was right about goodness: it arrives on cue as a deus ex machina that has been following the pair and swiftly enfolds the boy savior into a holy family, maybe a holy commune, where they talk of the breath of God passing ‘from man to man through all of time.’ Then McCarthy ends with an eloquent lament: a vision of mountain trout that ‘smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional’ in a time gone when the world was becoming; and what had been was ‘a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again.’ And all things ‘were older than man and they hummed of mystery.’ Brief and mystical, this is an extremely austere conclusion to the apocalyptic pilgrimage. Of the boy’s becoming, or his mission – redeeming a dead world, outliving death? – nothing is said. The rhythmic poetry of McCarthy’s formidable talent has made us see the blasted world as clearly as Conrad wanted us to see. But the scarcity of thought in the novel’s mystical infrastructure leaves the boy a designated but unsubstantiated messiah. It makes us wish that that old humming mystery had a lyric.
William Kennedy, New York Times
William Kennedy, New York Times
i have nothing to say about this.
The ending, despite its tragedy, is still absolutely beautiful. Knowing that some hope can be found for humanity in the form of the harmless young boy provides a glimpse of optimism in an otherwise completely depressing setting.
Amazon reader review
this sums up the boys part within the novel, he is simply shown to have the only innocence and optimism ( moral compass ) that is shown as a kind of naivety ignored by the man throughout the novel- his realisation that the boy " was the good one " depicts how we all come to realise that the only hope left in the other wise dead world is within a naive young boy too young to understand the evil in the world- making us all wish we had the simplism and view point of a child once again, to be able to look at the world with a full sense of optimism and no real understanding- but be happy with that.
it’s generally an impressive book ... But the more I think about it, the more I think the ending is a cheesy cop out.
Guardian commenter on Comment is Free
Guardian commenter on Comment is Free
the opinion of someone who has gone into no real analysis of the book, i to thought this when i first finished the book- seems too easy to find the family with a child " of about you age " or something like that. but this shows the " deus ex machina "
I’ve read The Road twice now and marvel at how McCarthy ties all of his story together. The book could easily be read from back to front and around again. Timeless is timeless. McCarthy knows this truth well.
John Holt, California Literary Review
Yeah.
I took the ending to mean that the boy has been seduced into thinking the man with wife and children was one of the good guys but he wasn’t really. It felt like an uplifting ending for about 5 minutes and then I thought ... ‘hang on a bit, why do we think this guy is a good guy when we haven’t come across any good guys in the whole book!’ I think the boy, released from his father’s relentless pessimism, reverts to his naïve faith in the adult world.
Guardian commenter on Comment is Free
Guardian commenter on Comment is Free
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