The End. (Reflective)

After finally getting to the end of The Road I do not really feel that surprised. Don’t get me wrong the ending is very depressing and heart wrenching but it was almost expected. Throughout the entire book the father’s death was foreshadowed through the constant (and consistently getting worse), cough. The turning point in the book, when I realized that we were losing the father, was when he began to cough up blood. I’ve seen enough movies and dramas where the main character begins to violently cough up blood to come up with the conclusion that blood is BAD. So although the end of the book leaves the reader sad that the relationship between the father and son has been destroyed by death, we are relieved and hopeful when the boy finds the “family” at the end that is willing to take him in.

Now at the very end of the novel when the boy walks out into the road for the first time and is confronted by the older man, I thought his life was over as well. Throughout the whole book the father was trying to teach his son the new “right and wrong” and how to follow the new norm of survival of the fittest but when the boy was found, my heart sunk. As the reader, it is in our nature to assume the worst in the situation. One thought kept running through my mind, “No! Don’t do it. What if he is the bad guy??” But the boy decided to take a cautious chance and in his innocence, went with the man. Although we do not know exactly what happened from that point on, we assume by the last few sentences that he is safe and continuing to grow in the deformed world.

Overall, The Road was a well written novel with a scary but outstanding message. It makes the reader really reflect on their morals and ability to think on their feet. It was very easy to get wrapped up in the story and constantly ask the question, “Well…what WOULD I do?” Although the style of writing was drastically different and it appeared that dialogue did not exist, it kept the reader interested and focused so that they could understand which character was speaking. The small amount of characters allowed us to become emotionally attached and explore the struggles of each person. The author could have taken many different approaches to writing a book about post-apocalyptic times but the structure and the idea of a true father-son relationship made The Road a success. This is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone outside of class because for Christians it will challenge their perception of the world and for non-Christians it will (hopefully) push them to question life after death – physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Decisions, Decisions (Problematize)

The most challenging part about The Road up until this point in the book is the ethical issues between the father and the son. We see this beautiful relationship develop between the two that can be viewed from a biblical standpoint; the father’s love for his son is undeniable and something completely and totally beautiful. Despite the unbreakable bond the two have, ethical issues still arise throughout the book. Every time they stumble across a person who is reaching out for help, the father demands the son to keep moving despite the desire to stop and help. The best example in the book is when the father and son find an old man traveling down the same road on page 161. When they approach him the son does his pleading routine in hopes that the father will stop and help just this one time and to the readers’ surprise, the father finally gives in. It always seems to boil down to “run and survive” or “stay to help and potentially get caught.” Are they supposed to give up their chance to live for someone else’s sake? In a world that is already broken and destroyed, is it ethical to walk away from a situation where another person is crying out for help? This text is a huge challenge to the way we live our lives today; what extremes would we go to in a post-apocalyptic society? Not only do we have to consider servant leadership, we also have to consider situations beyond the typical daily challenges. The text explores the idea of cannibalism, suicide, and selfishness evolving in this so called “new beginning.” The Road goes beyond the idea of questionable circumstances and reaches a whole new level of ethical issues that we must evaluate in our faith especially while we are at Southeastern.

Situation: We are stuck in a post-apocalyptic world, the food is already scarce and we are starving. Do you take on the role of the “good guy” or the “bad guy?” In this moment, everyone would most likely answer “I would never eat a person!” or “I have a tight grip on my ethical stance, I know I would fall under the category of “good guy” just like the father and son.” But suddenly the world changes and you cannot find food to save your life, you are becoming so sick you can barely make it through the day, and you can no longer trust anyone. Which morals are easily thrown out the window? How many people would actually stay strong through it all? We say that suicide is wrong, but we are going to die anyway. We say that cannibalism is appalling, but is impossible to survive without food. I would bet that less than 50% of people in our class would decide to persevere when this unimaginable world is brought to life and everything we’ve ever known is completely flipped upside down.  Where do you stand?

Once upon a time there was a father and his son... (Annotation)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about the struggles of a father and son as they try to survive in a post-apocalyptic society. If we think about the typical relationship between father and son today it might go a little like this: the father wants to be a good influence on his son, he makes sure he grows up with steady morals, and love in his heart. The father usually plays ball with his son when he is young with high hopes that he will grow to be a star athlete, but ultimately he wants his son to be happy. While the son is young, he usually becomes attached to his father and strives to be like him. As he gets older, the son may become more distant and independent from his father. In a typical father-son relationship disagreements are expected to happen and strains begin to push the son towards his own freedom, this is not the case in The Road. Janet Maslin of the New York Times describes the relationship best, “The father’s loving efforts to shepherd his son are made that much more wrenching by the unavailability of food, shelter, safety, companionship or hope in most places where they scavenge to subsist.” This relationship between the father and son surpasses the norm in the twenty-first century.

Although the reader does not know the son’s age, because there is no sense of time, we can assume that he is still a young boy. He is small enough that the father, in his own weakness, is still able to carry the boy when times get tough. Yet it is evident that the boy is old enough to experience fear, ask questions about the past, and challenge his father on decision-making. One simple word sticks out to me in all of the conversations between the father and son, “okay.”

From the very beginning of the book whenever disagreement is evident between the father and son, one of them always relents, whether they want to or not, with one word: “okay.” Whether it is convincing or sincere is up to the reader to decide based on the context of the word in that chapter. Regardless, it is a word that always pops up in conversation and somehow seems to play a significant role in the dialogue.

Oxford English Dictionary defines okay as an adjective, “all correct, all right, satisfactory, good; well, in good health or order. Another definition (verb) is “to endorse, esp. by marking with the letter ‘OK’; to approve, agree to, sanction or pass.” If we look at the word at its surface we see that it is just a term of reassurance that everything is in good order, but in The Road it breaks the norm of the use of the term in the 21^st century because the reader knows that everything is not alright.

The beginning of the book is where we see the first example play out on page ten and eleven when the boy asks his father what he would do if the boy died. The very last word of the dialogue is when the boy responds with “okay.” It would be very easy for the reader to miss out on the importance of this term because it is the first time we see it appear in the text. Next, on page forty three when the father and son are discussing the bareness of the road the son responds with “okay.” There are a total of thirteen instances so far where the only response the boy gives to his father is “okay,” and is usually occurs at the end of the dialogue. In the text, “okay” is ironic because the reader recognizes that everything they are going through is far from okay and that the struggles they experience could potentially be the end of their life. We have to assume that the term “okay” in the story is not one of endearment and understanding but of acceptance regardless of whatever trials the father and son must go through. The boy begins to understand but fear still overcomes him in most circumstances. The “okay” is implying that the father and son will keep fighting for their lives as long as possible. But how much longer will the son be able to respond with this term without reality catching up to him and overwhelming him with a desire to give up? How can the father prevent this from happening?


Works Cited
Maslin, Janet. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/books/25masl.html. September 25,2006. Online. October 12, 2011.

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. 2006.

Oxford English Dictionary. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/236133?rskey=tnxK4r&result=2&isAdvanced=false#eid