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?
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
"If he is not the word of God God never spoke."
ReplyDelete"Can I ask you something? he said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now."
I think that it is easy to imagine McCarthy’s depiction of the apocalypse actually happening. I do not believe that an apocalypse will occur in my lifetime but if it were to happen I don’t see it being far from the way he portrays it. I think that people would turn into cannibals. Humans would leave their morals behind and see other humans as a threat or as something that will keep them living. I do not believe that human civilization is anywhere near an apocalypse or an apocalyptic event.
“He’d been ready to die and now he wasn’t going to and he had to think about that.”(144)
ReplyDelete“We’re going to be okay, arent we Papa?
Yes. We are.
And nothing bad is going to happen to us.
That’s right.
Because we’re carrying the fire.
Yes. Because we’re carrying the fire.” (83)
It is very easy to imagine this kind of an apocalypse happening. I believe that some people would, in fact, turn against each other due to fear or survival. Human society isn’t heading in that direction but there are circumstances that will change people and could lead to things such as cannibalism.
"This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They dont give up" (137)
ReplyDelete"Do you wish you would die? No. But I might wished I had died. When you're alive you've always got that ahead of you" (169).
It is easy to imagine McCarthy's nightmare vision actually happening because people would behave as they do in the novel and because human civilization could end at anytime. It is easy to think about McCarthy's nightmare vision because the world could end in a thousand years or on Thursday, just as McCarthy stated. In The Road, people viewed each other as a usable resource rather than a respectable human. This selfishness would occur if a disaster took place. If you have people pepper spraying each other to get an Xbox on Black Friday than selfishness is and will be present in an apocalypse. It doesn't seem like human civilization is heading towards an end because I don't subscribe to a nihilistic view that the world will end. But just because it may seem like the world isn't ending, doesn't mean it won't.
"Can you do it? When the time comes? when the time comes there will be no times. Now is the time. Curse God and die. What if it doesn't fire? It has to fire. What if it doesn't fire? Could you crush that beloved skull with a rock? Is there such a being within you of which you know nothing? Can there be? Hold him in your arms. Just so. The soul is quick. Pull him toward you. Kiss him Quickly." (114) "Do you wish you would die? No. But I might wished I had died. When you're alive you've always got that ahead of you" (169)
ReplyDeleteIn the future, McCarthy's nightmare definitely seems like a grim possibility, but not anytime soon. Like McCarthy said, there really is no way to know when or if an apocalypse would happen but one will happen some day. I think McCarthy's envisioning of lack of society after an apocalyptic event is pretty accurate. I think if most of the Earth's population died in the apocalypse and only a 1000 or so people where left on the planet then his vision is right on and chaos and anarchy and cannibalism would eventually ensue.
"We wouldn't ever eat anybody would we? No. Of course not. Even if were starving? We're starving now." (128)
ReplyDelete"Shh. I'm right here. I won't leave you. You promise. Yes. I promise. I was going to run. To try and lead them away. But i can't leave you." (113)
The novel in itself is far from the way we live our lives today, when modern day technology and civilization is at the highest point it has ever been in history. It seems impossible to imagine the authors vision coming true in reality, especially because most in our society never experience many hardships compared to the character's lives in the novel. Under the same circumstances, I believe that people would act selfishly and not as calmly as the father and the boy do in the novel. After years had passed and rations became limited, it seems inevitable that we would have to resort to feeding off of our own kind. I also think that people who are not strong enough to live in this kind of world would likely end their own lives to avoid dealing with this new kind of territory. Maybe some would try to figure out a rational way to live in this kind of environment, but eventually everyone would end up loosing their sanity. Civilization seems far from heading to this kind of outcome, and probably may never reach a point where it becomes corrupted. In the present, our society is as stable as ever and is most unlikely to become destroyed.
"did you have any friends? Yes i did.... What happened to them? They died. All of them? Yes. All of them. Do you miss them? Yes. I do."(60)
ReplyDelete"You have to make it like talk that you imagine. And you'll hear me. You have to practice. Just dont give up. okay?" (279)
I think that McCarthy's vision is easy to imagine because when things out of the ordinary occur sometimes chaos occurs. Because of the apocalypse people now eat each other and scour the the earth looking for the smallest amount of food left in the world. Under the same circumstance i do believe some people would result in eating each other, and that some like the man and the boy would have to avoid them and try to be as civil as possible. I believe that at some point in time the world may end however it is possible that the world wont. We cannot as a population make the decision whether or not the world will end without scientific evidence proving otherwise.
"Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all." (28) "This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man"s brains out of his hair." (74)
ReplyDeleteIt is all to easy for something like this to happen to us due to the fact that it could be anything. We don't know if or when a meteorite is going to strike earth. Even if we did know somethings just cant be stopped. Under the same circumstances people would do anything to get by. Rules are meant to be broken, but when there are no rules everything is broken. The worlds looking pretty good as of now, but anythings possible with the unperfected people of this world.
1.
ReplyDelete“He carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and he took it from his coat and he gave to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while he fell back and after a while the man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from the ashes of its ruin” (76).
“He’d had this feeling before, beyond the numbness and the dull despair. The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those themes into oblivion. Colors. The names of birds. Things to eat. Finally the names of things he believed to be true. More fragile than he would have thought. How much was gone already? The sacred idiom shorn up its referents and so of its reality. Drawing down like something trying to preserve heat. In time to wink out forever” (88-89).
“He’d seen it all before. Shapes of dried blood in the stubble grass and gray coils of viscera where the slain had been field dressed and hauled away. The wall beyond held a frieze of human heads, all faced alike, dried and caved with their taut grins and their shrunken eyes. They wore gold rings in their leather ears and in the wind their sparse and ratty hair twisted about their skulls. The teeth in their sockets like dental molds, the crude tattoos etched in some home brewed woad faded in the beggared sunlight. […] Old scars with old motifs stitched along their borders” (90).
2.
Cormac McCarthy’s nightmare vision portrayed in The Road is easily imaginable by society because people behave as they probably realistically would under the circumstances and it often seems as though civilization really is headed toward the end described. McCarthy describes the post-apocalyptic world from the perspective of two survivors with such detail and abstractness that it allows the reader to completely believe that a world like this is possible. Also, when the people in the novel are faced with the nightmarish situation, they act as almost any people alive today would; self-seekingly and almost primal. In a world where survival of the fittest is taken to the extreme, people would do anything to make themselves the fittest. Today, we as a human civilization ravage our limited natural resources and constantly make war and violence against each other. This irresponsible and self-destructive manner seems likely to lead to an end of civilization similar to that which McCarthy depicts in The Road.
Under number two (the second bullet), is the comma after novel necessary? (“Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under the same circumstances?”)
This is Molly, by the by:
ReplyDelete"Come on, the man said. Everything's okay. I promise" (135).
"This is what god guys do. They keep trying. They don't give up" (137).
Knowing what I know about people and knowing what I know about life, Cormac McCarthy isn't too far off in his depiction of human struggle in The Road. As far as getting to the point in the destruction of the world we are when we begin the novel, I find it difficult to imagine getting there, especially if the destruction is man made. The events that occur in the novel, however, are not very hard to see happening. Humans will do anything to survive; it's instinctual. Some people can control their instinctual behavior more than others, but we all have the same drive, the same motivation: to live. In American society, it's hard to imagine ever being in a place where cannibalism is necessary to survive. Although it is taboo in modern cultures, cannibalism happens in today's world. Behaviors characters exhibit in the novel happen today. It isn't too far off to think that, placed in dire circumstances, anyone would exhibit similar behaviors. It takes a truly special person to be as calm, patient, and clear-headed in such a situation as the man in the novel is; it is not unlikely such a person would occur if the novel were to actually happen. With the situation the world's nations are in currently, man made worldwide destruction doesn't seem to be an imminent threat. It could, however, happen in the future or perhaps by natural causes -- such as McCarthy suggested, an asteroid hitting the earth. It is important to keep in mind that humans are animals; animals act on instinct; instinct creates a world in which the only goal is to stay alive.
“Just wait here, he said.
ReplyDeleteI’m going with you.
I thought you were scared.
I am scared.
Okay. Just stay close behind me.” (110)
“If you don’t want to hold the lamp you’ll have to take the pistol.
I’ll hold the lamp.
Okay. This is what the good guys do. They keep trying.
They don’t give up.
Okay.” (137)
It is easy to imagine McCarthy’s nightmare vision actually happening because the narrator tells exactly what happens in the story with too many details. You can see and feel the nightmare that he felt when you read each of the things that happen to him. I think people would likely behave as they do in the novel because they will feel fear about what is going to happen next during the novel. Also people will be more worried about how they would do for survive and continue walking and if anything happen they could defend themselves. I don’t think that human civilization is headed toward an apocalyptic event or something, we don’t have proves to prove it but I think this will happen in a long time.
"did you have any friends? Yes. I did. Lots of them? yes. do you remember them? yes. i remember them. what happened to them? they died. all of them? yes all of them. (60)
ReplyDeleteThere's no one to see. do you want to die? is that what you want? I don't care, the boy said sobbing. I don't care
I think its pretty easy to picture something like Cormac Mccarthy's description of the road to happen. though i dont think the majority of the population would resort to cannabalism, people today are so dependent on things like medical care and having machines do things for them so most people would not live long enough for all the food to run out anyway. But the people that lived past that would probably just kill themselves and cannibalism would probably not be such a big problem.
But we have certainly dug ourselves into quite a whole what with global warming and the threat of nuclear warfare i would say there's no way for us to stop an apocalypse at this point.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInteresting responses!
ReplyDeleteI have some questions.
Do you think that empathy for other human beings can improve a person's chances of survival, or does it harm them?
Would you prefer to live in a war-time setting like the one portrayed in Fallen Angels, or in McCarthy's post-apocalyptic setting?
Rachel-- I like the passages you picked. McCarthy writes with such rhythm and beauty. I can't describe it clearly, but it's the only thing that really kept me reading this unrelievedly grim story.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comma: no; it's not necessary. I imagine I put it in there because it's the natural place where I would pause in the flow of the sentence. Grammatically, it's not at all necessary though. I tend to overcomma and often go through emails to take them out before I send.
This is one of my favorite passages:
ReplyDeleteThe blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening. Often he had to get up. No sound but the wind in the bare and blackened trees. He rose and stood tottering in that cold autistic dark with his arms outheld for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings. An old chronicle. To seek out the upright. No fall but preceded by a declination. He took great marching steps into the nothingness, counting them against his return. Eyes closed, arms oaring. Upright to what? Something nameless in the night, lode or matrix. To which he and the stars were common satellite. Like the great pendulum in its rotunda scribing through the long day movements of the universe of which you may say it knows nothing and yet know it must.
I like this passage because it suggests something instinctual—and hopeful, I guess—about the human need to follow a higher power, whether it be God or simply gravity.
FROM KRISTINE: Because of the great detail described in this novel, I believe that it is not very difficult to imagine McCarthy's nightmare vision actually happening. Personally, I can imagine people coming to the point of losing civilization. The fear of dying, or even losing a loved one, can definitely be enough to trigger chaos and uncivilzation. we are only human and the truth is, none of us can predict the future - honestly speaking, no one knows what they would do in such an apocalyptic event. would we all stick together or would we all go against eachother? I believe that most, if not all, people would fall apart and colapse. Some may be as strong as the man and boy are but everyone has a limit. Truthfully, the question may forever remain unanswered. Under the same circumstances that the man and the boy go through, I cannot truly imagine all of us staying as civilized as these two characters do. In various times, it is made clear to the reader that the man's only reason of fighting to survive is his son - "If he is not the word of God God never spoke." What exactly would we do? Would we struggle to survive or would we simply give up? Would we starve or would we eventually reach the point of doing whatever is necessary in order to eat? The man tells the boy that his job is to protect him and he will do anything in order to live up to that. the boy asks his dad, "We wouldn't ever eat anybody would we? No. Of course not. Even if were starving? We're starving now" (128). Up until the point where I have read, the boy and the man have succesfully managed to stay cilivzed. But the question is - would we all be able to do the same? What if you're not only battling to keep yourself alive? What if you have a son to look out for - or a daughter, or sister, or brother, whomever. In our case, I do not consider civilization as coming close to reaching this far but as McCarthy states, "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." Chaos can grab all of us unprepared and can strike us whenever, however, wherever. cilization can come to pieces today, tomorrow, or in hundreds of years.
ReplyDelete“Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.”
ReplyDeleteI think people have their own superstitions to how the world is going to end, but Cormac McCarthy creates a horrifying, but very realistic event. Although much of the worlds food is gone, many people arnt turning to cannibalism. Cannibalim can become real but its not very likely, expescially when their is still a scarce amount of food. Pople have been living without the modern way of the world for hundreds of years so the world coming to an end or humans becoming exsist could happen but I think we have developed enough to not let a disaster like that happen. The passage I choose realtes to the vison of McCarthy because theyre are people willing to do what they need to do to survive, and even though they dont want to be doing it, they do it to live. While other people wouldnt turn to such extreames because of their 'values' and they would rather die then eat their own kind to survive.
"This is what the good guys do. They keep trying. They dont give up" (137)
ReplyDelete"Do you wish you would die? No. But I might wished I had died. When you're alive you've always got that ahead of you" (169).
It is very easy to picture McCarthys nightmare vision actually happening because if it would happen, people would react and behave the same as the characters in "The Road" and civilization couldnt end at any point.