Part One --> Page 1 - 69
>> Establishment of setting.
>> Slight references to mother/family.
>> Gas station - try's to call home.
>> Road rat gets killed - flash back to wife at gun shot (when she leaves them).
Part Two --> Page 69 - 122
>> Running away from the cannibals.
>> Theatre (brief) light goes out while wife is pregnant. Turns quite dramatic - as he's running.
>> Straight to a calm scene abruptly.
>> Cannibals cellar.
>> Running away.
>> Scene ends outside the house on the floor.
>> The door of the house creeks (someones coming) - screams can be heard.
Part Three --> Page 122 - End
>> Starts in the dark outside the house, man wakes child - cuts to them walking down the road in darkness.
To Be Continued..
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Voice and Point of View
The Road is written in third person, in the voice of an omniscient narrator, which the characters referred to as 'he' or 'the boy'.
However, with in this, McCarthy manipulates and plays with narrative voice and the point of view from which the story is seen.
Here are some of the things you might find interesting to explore in the reaction to the narrative voice of The Road.
>> 3rd person voice, omniscient point of view.
>> 3rd person voice, from the point of view of the man.
>> 3rd person voice, from the point of view of the boy.
>> Unattributed dialogue (i.e. without 'he said').
>> Decontextualised dialogue (without commentary from the narrator).
>> Unattributed thoughts (i.e. without 'he thought').
>> Not signalling where the narrative ends and dialogue or the thoughts of a character in the first person begins.
>> 3rd person free indirect style where the reader not only feels he/she is seeing events from a characters perspective but that it is in the characters own words, not those of a narrative voice.
Page 306 ("Once there were brook..") - the end
>> A nice finish to the end of a dark and depressing story.
>> A picturesque image of what they have longed for throughout the novel.
>> Slight reference to what the man has been dreaming of - fish.
>> Filmic, you can imagine a film running as someone is narrating over the top.
>> Different possibilities of narrators, different people who have had the chance to follow them, such as the family, little boy, old man etc.
>> The paragraph is very different to the rest of the novel, as it shows a proper image in ful description.
I feel that McCarthy foreshadows the decaying world at the end of the novel, suggesting there was no point in mentioning it right at the start because it can't be saved. He writes that there were maps of the world in it's becoming on the backs of the fish and that it would not be made right again.
However, with in this, McCarthy manipulates and plays with narrative voice and the point of view from which the story is seen.
Here are some of the things you might find interesting to explore in the reaction to the narrative voice of The Road.
>> 3rd person voice, omniscient point of view.
>> 3rd person voice, from the point of view of the man.
>> 3rd person voice, from the point of view of the boy.
>> Unattributed dialogue (i.e. without 'he said').
>> Decontextualised dialogue (without commentary from the narrator).
>> Unattributed thoughts (i.e. without 'he thought').
>> Not signalling where the narrative ends and dialogue or the thoughts of a character in the first person begins.
>> 3rd person free indirect style where the reader not only feels he/she is seeing events from a characters perspective but that it is in the characters own words, not those of a narrative voice.
Page 306 ("Once there were brook..") - the end
>> A nice finish to the end of a dark and depressing story.
>> A picturesque image of what they have longed for throughout the novel.
>> Slight reference to what the man has been dreaming of - fish.
>> Filmic, you can imagine a film running as someone is narrating over the top.
>> Different possibilities of narrators, different people who have had the chance to follow them, such as the family, little boy, old man etc.
>> The paragraph is very different to the rest of the novel, as it shows a proper image in ful description.
I feel that McCarthy foreshadows the decaying world at the end of the novel, suggesting there was no point in mentioning it right at the start because it can't be saved. He writes that there were maps of the world in it's becoming on the backs of the fish and that it would not be made right again.
The Woman
Why the term 'woman' is mentioned less than men terms
>> Man has more control - takes more responsibility.
>> Woman symbolise life (reproduction) - there is no more life so there are very little woman.
>> She is not able to kill her son when the time comes so she has little relevance if she can't do it.
>> Not a novel threatened by woman.
Page 17
Representation
>> Wealthy as they've afforded to go to a theatre.
>> The man remembers everything about her - her smell, her touch, the clothes she wore. Shows how much he truly cared for her and misses her.
>> Longing for contact with her, to have her in his presence again.
Thematic Functions
>> She was loving and caring.
>> She was well off and could afford the better things in life.
Symbolic Functions
>> The love they shared from the past.
Possible reasons for absence
>> He doesn't want to remember her.
>> Man has more control - takes more responsibility.
>> Woman symbolise life (reproduction) - there is no more life so there are very little woman.
>> She is not able to kill her son when the time comes so she has little relevance if she can't do it.
>> Not a novel threatened by woman.
Page 17
Representation
>> Wealthy as they've afforded to go to a theatre.
>> The man remembers everything about her - her smell, her touch, the clothes she wore. Shows how much he truly cared for her and misses her.
>> Longing for contact with her, to have her in his presence again.
Thematic Functions
>> She was loving and caring.
>> She was well off and could afford the better things in life.
Symbolic Functions
>> The love they shared from the past.
Possible reasons for absence
>> He doesn't want to remember her.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
The Gingerbread Man, McCarthy Style
In
a dark and deserted forest a old woman and a old
man lived in a cottage. On a cold day the woman made
a gingerbread man. She gave him eyes and buttons
and legs and arms and a head. She put him in
the oven to bake.
|
The
woman and man hadn't eaten for days and wanted to eat the
gingerbread man alive. As soon as he was cooked, the woman opened
the oven door. The gingerbread man yelled Don't eat me! The old woman and man ran after the gingerbread man. Stop! Stop! No. Why? Because you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man! Down a dark and bunt out lane a pig emerged from the corpses or scored people. Stop! Stop! I want to eat you. No. Why? Because you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. Further down the decaying road where trees once stood and the grass grew long, a cow appeared. He held in his mouth the bones of another cows leg, stripped of flesh, stripped of life. Stop! Stop! I want to eat you. No. Why? Because you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. The cow and pig and woman began to follow the gingerbread man. A horse then jumped out, it's body thin, it's ribs as clear as day. Stop! Stop! I want to eat you. No. Why? Because you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. The cow and pig and woman and horse followed him. The gingerbread man was then blocked by a waste filled river. Oh no! They will catch me. How can I cross the river? A fox came out from behind the remains of a burnt down tree. I can help you cross the river. Jump on to my tail and I will swim across. You will eat me. I wont. You will. I just want to help. The gingerbread man climbed on the fox's tail. He started to get wet. Climb onto my back. Okay. You are too heavy. Jump onto my nose. Okay. The fox tossed the gingerbread man up in the air. Opened his mouth. Snap! That was the end of the gingerbread man. |
Monday, 12 November 2012
Plot summary
An unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a major unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and most life on Earth. The land is filled with ash and devoid of living animals and vegetation. Many of the remaining human survivors have resorted to cannibalism, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for flesh. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, gave up hope and committed suicide some time before the story began, despite the father's pleas. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy".
Realizing that they cannot survive the oncoming winter where they are, the father takes the boy south, along empty roads towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks and in a supermarket cart. The man coughs blood from time to time and eventually realizes he is dying, yet still struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation.
They have a revolver, but only two rounds. The boy has been told to use the gun on himself, if necessary to avoid falling into the hands of cannibals. During their trek, the father uses one bullet to kill a man who stumbles upon them and poses a grave threat. Fleeing from the man's companions, they have to abandon most of their possessions. As they are near death from starvation, the man finds an unlooted underground bunker filled with food and other necessities. However, it is too exposed, so they only stay a few days
In the face of these obstacles, the man repeatedly reassures the boy that they are "the good guys" who are "carrying the fire". On their journey, the duo scrounge for food, evade roving bands, and contend with horrors such as a newborn infant roasted on a spit, and captives being gradually harvested as food.
Although the man and the boy eventually reach the sea, their situation does not improve. They head back inland, but the man succumbs to an illness. Before he dies, the father tells the boy that he can continue to speak with him in his imagination after he is gone. The boy holds wake over the corpse for days, with no idea of what to do next.
On the third day, the grieving boy encounters a man who says he has been tracking the pair. The man, who has a woman and two children of his own, a boy and a girl, convinces the boy that he is one of the "good guys" and takes him under his protection.
Realizing that they cannot survive the oncoming winter where they are, the father takes the boy south, along empty roads towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks and in a supermarket cart. The man coughs blood from time to time and eventually realizes he is dying, yet still struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation.
They have a revolver, but only two rounds. The boy has been told to use the gun on himself, if necessary to avoid falling into the hands of cannibals. During their trek, the father uses one bullet to kill a man who stumbles upon them and poses a grave threat. Fleeing from the man's companions, they have to abandon most of their possessions. As they are near death from starvation, the man finds an unlooted underground bunker filled with food and other necessities. However, it is too exposed, so they only stay a few days
In the face of these obstacles, the man repeatedly reassures the boy that they are "the good guys" who are "carrying the fire". On their journey, the duo scrounge for food, evade roving bands, and contend with horrors such as a newborn infant roasted on a spit, and captives being gradually harvested as food.
Although the man and the boy eventually reach the sea, their situation does not improve. They head back inland, but the man succumbs to an illness. Before he dies, the father tells the boy that he can continue to speak with him in his imagination after he is gone. The boy holds wake over the corpse for days, with no idea of what to do next.
On the third day, the grieving boy encounters a man who says he has been tracking the pair. The man, who has a woman and two children of his own, a boy and a girl, convinces the boy that he is one of the "good guys" and takes him under his protection.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Friday, 2 November 2012
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