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.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA civilization is a society where there are people who have culture, who have order and rule. I think we define ourselves by the world around us; by other people and what we and they, together, have to offer. We define ourselves by our access to the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, water, sleep, air, regulated body temperature; and also by our access to those things beyond basic necessities, like electronics, clothes, expansive houses. Throughout the novel the man and boy struggle to maintain the basic needs of life; the two scavenge for food, shelter, water, and are ultimately headed toward the South, a place of warmth.
ReplyDeleteADH is Molly; I don't know why it doesn't have my name...
ReplyDeleteWe and the world define ourselves as a civilization, a human society with highly developed material and spiritual resources, intellect, moral refinement and a complex cultural, political, and legal organization. Without the main components of a civilization, one ceases to exist, as in The Road by Cormac McCarthy. In the novel, the man thinks “They were starving right enough. The country was looted, ransacked, ravaged. Rifled of every crumb. The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle” (129).
ReplyDeleteCivilization is how successful a government or group of people are. This can be measured as form of government, culture, and how these people work together to achieve certain goals. We define ourselves by the things we own, and our economical situation. Although in some countries some may view the world differently, in a consumer society such as ours that is the common view. In a post-Apocalypse society such as the man and the child's, these views are drastically changed and people try to be as efficient as possible and try to gain as much as possible from the little that they are offered. On page 80 the man says to the boy that "we have to look some more, he said. We have to keep looking." The man realizes that no matter how exhausted they are they have to keep looking for food to survive and make the small amounts of food they do find last.
ReplyDeleteCivilization is represented by people who are a part of it. It is the culture, religions, and other things that make up what we recognize as civilization. Everyone knows what they do in society and can identify with that. We find who we are according to what part we play in the world. That’s why we’re all unique and individual. Everything we see, where we live, what we do affects our interpretation of the world. The Road references the past civilization and the boy and his father survive by using the resources of the civilization they used to be a part of to survive. This is the physical things and also the knowledge that they have. “They camped almost in the road itself and built a great fire, dragging dead limbs out of the snow and piling them on the flames to hiss and steam.” (102)
ReplyDeleteCivilization is an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry and government has been reached. We define ourselves and the world around us respectfuls because we respect one another so we can live a good life and being in a exemplary society.
ReplyDeleteThe father and the son are talking and the father told his son "My job is to take care of you. I was appinted to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you. Do you understand? Yes. He sat there cowled in the blanket. After a while he looked up. Are we still the good guys? he said. Yes. We're still the good guys. And we always will be. Yes. We always will be. Okay"(77).
Civilization is like a spoiled kid, one thats never happy with anything and only looking for beneficial opportunities. This is both good and bad for the people of the civilization because they will be constantly growing, but they will never be happy with what they have. We define ourselves and the world around us by feeding off each other and taking in information.
ReplyDeleteThe father and his son are trying to get to the south where it is warmer. They assume that the grass or whats left of the grass is going to be greener on the other side. They are not going to be happy until they see for them selves.
Civilization is defined by the thoughts and actions of the people who live in it. We define ourselves by our thoughts and actions, and civilization is the result of everyone's thoughts and actions. The world in The Road was and is defines be the thoghts and actions of people; they have turned the world into a post-apocolyptic wasteland. "The country was looted, ransacked, ravaged. Rifled of every crumb. The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle” (129).
ReplyDeleteCivilization is defined by an organized society. There are some basic concepts that have to be meet in order for a gathering of people to be considered a civilization. For example, humanity. People need to have basic respect for one another. And there must be rules that people have to abide by or there will be consequences. There are many factors that go into defining a civilization but those are just very basic. We define our selves and the world around us with by how we identify to others and how accepted we are into society. Without others to base ourselves off of there is no way to define what kind of person you are. “They camped almost in the road itself and built a great fire, dragging dead limbs out of the snow and piling them on the flames to hiss and steam.” (102) Helps me think about the questions because it is an example of anarchy. No rules to abide by except don't be the one getting dragged into the fire.
ReplyDeleteCivilization is a structured community in which the people that create and make up the community have a balanced and well communicated system to abide by. By being civil, we as a society create a safe and healthy place to live and mature in. Having a corrupt system would only end in chaos and result in destruction of ourselves. In our society, we define ourselves by the decisions we make in our lives and the relationships we keep to one another. "Human Bodies. Sprawled in every attitude. Dried and shrunken in their rotted clothes." (47) This quote is important because when we compare scenes like these to the ones in our own lives, we cannot imagine any of this ever existing. It helps to understand the way they are living and how chaotic their lives are.
ReplyDeleteHayley-- I like your comment about anarchy. Although there seems to be some sort of awful, primitive organization in the bands of blood cults and road gangs. "Don't be the one getting dragged into the fire" is true.
ReplyDelete