Second blog post

Blog post #2: (10 points)

In The Road, Cormac McCarthy envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes" (181).

Although the entire novel is based on the fact of some cataclysmic, earth-shattering event, McCarthy leaves it up to the reader to figure out what has happened.  In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, McCarthy says,

A lot of people ask me. I don't have an opinion. At the Santa Fe Institute I'm with scientists of all disciplines, and some of them in geology said it looked like a meteor to them. But it could be anything—volcanic activity or it could be nuclear war. It is not really important. The whole thing now is, what do you do? The last time the caldera in Yellowstone blew, the entire North American continent was under about a foot of ash. People who've gone diving in Yellowstone Lake say that there is a bulge in the floor that is now about 100 feet high and the whole thing is just sort of pulsing. From different people you get different answers, but it could go in another three to four thousand years or it could go on Thursday. No one knows.

Ron Charles, in the Washington Post, writes about The Road,

These remarkable passages, like a succession of prose poems, are marked by a few flashes of terror, but we're never forced to gorge on the gore that McCarthy's most devoted fans celebrate. There's only a glimpse of the civilization-ending catastrophe itself, which took place years ago, just before the boy was born: "A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions."

Afterward this single haunting vision of the early days: "People sitting on the sidewalk in the dawn half immolate and smoking in their clothes. Like failed sectarian suicides. Others would come to help them. Within a year there were fires on the ridges and deranged chanting. The screams of the murdered. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road." 

Your question:

1. Find and copy two other brief passages that really stuck with you, either for their raw beauty or their horror.

2. Then respond to the following questions in a paragraph with a topic sentence that covers  ALL of the content:

·        How difficult or easy is it to imagine McCarthy’s nightmare vision actually happening?

·        Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under the same circumstances?

·        Does it now seem that human civilization is headed toward such an end?

Charles, Ron. “Apocalypse Now.” 1 Oct. 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com

Jurgensen, John. “America’s Favorite Cowboy.” Wall Street Journal. 20 Nov. 2009. Online.wsj.com

First blog post

Answer the following questions thoughtfully in a paragraph and then find a passage from the book that helped to shape your thinking.

o  What defines civilization?

o  How do we define ourselves and the world around us?

o  Find and copy a passage from last night’s reading that helps you think about these questions.

IF YOU DIDN"T FINISH IN CLASS TODAY...

Cormac McCarthy's style of writing:

o        obscure vocabulary

o        fragments

o        lack of quotation marks--hard to distinguish speech from thought

o        not much intrusion from the author--author's voice

o        reader sees everything from the man's perspective-->3rd person limited point of view

Lots of description:

"High rock bluffs on the far side of the canyon with thin black trees clinging to the escarpment. The sound of the river faded. Then it returned. A cold wind blowing up from the country below. They were all day reaching the river" (37).

YOU write a short paragraph describing the view out the window or in the classroom that imitates the style of McCarthy.

Then explain in a sentence exactly how your paragraph demonstrates aspects of his style.

Congratulations!

You figured this out.  Join the group by posting an entry: How's your reading going?