Blog post #6

250 words; you must also comment on someone else's post.

McCarthy ends the story with the image of trout in mountain streams before the end of the world:

"In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery" (287).

Write a paragraph with a substantive topic sentence in which you answer, in detail, the following questions:

·        Do you think this book has a hopeful ending? Why or why not? 

·        What does it suggest about what lies ahead?  After such events, could things be "put back again"?  Could the world be "made right"?

·        Does it provide closure? 

Support your thinking with evidence from the story (at least two specific examples)

Blog post #5: "Carrying the fire"

In The Road, the earth is covered with ash, fires burn on the ridges; a human being smolders; the father explains that he’s been struck by lightning.   What does the fire represent? 

Here are some ideas:

In Greek legend, Prometheus was part man, part immortal.  Zeus assigned him to create man, shaping him from clay and water.  But Prometheus became a little too fond of his creation.  He’s largely known for giving man the sacred gift of fire, stolen from the gods.  Zeus didn’t like this idea much. 

In another story, when he and Zeus were developing the ceremonies for sacrificing animals as tribute to the gods, Prometheus again sided with his creation, man.  He divided the slaughtered animal parts into two packets. In one was the ox-meat and innards wrapped up in the stomach lining. In the other packet were the ox-bones wrapped up in its own rich fat. One would go to the gods and the other to the humans making the sacrifice. Prometheus presented Zeus with a choice between the two, and Zeus took the deceptively richer appearing: the fat-encased, but inedible bones.  That’s why, throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men make sacrifice to the gods whenever they land safely on an island, slaughtering a cow or an ox, wrapping the thigh bones in fat and burning them, while roasting and eating the rest themselves.

Zeus reacted to this trick by presenting man with a “gift,” Pandora—the first woman.  She came from the forge of Haephestus, beautiful as a goddess.  As a wedding gift for Pandora and Prometheus’ brother, Zeus gave a box that they were told never to open. Naturally, Pandora opened the box, and out flew all the troubles of the world that continue to plague mankind today.

Later, Zeus ordered Prometheus to be chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle flew down and ate his liver, which constantly regenerated itself (remember, he’s an immortal).  His punishment was endless, until eventually, Prometheus was rescued by Hercules.

So—make the connection to the novel:

After they leave the house where the people are locked in the basement, waiting to be eaten, the boy asks, “We wouldn’t ever eat anybody, would we? No. Of course not.  Even if we were starving?...  But we wouldn’t. No. We wouldn’t.  No matter what.  No. No matter what.  Because we’re the good guys.  Yes.  And we’re carrying the fire.  And we’re carrying the fire. Yes.  Okay” (129).

At the end of the story, just before he dies, the man talks to the boy.  The boy says,  “I want to be with you.  You cant.  Please.  You cant.  You have to carry the fire.  I don’t know how to.  Yest you do.  Is it real?  The fire?  Yes it is.  Where is it?  I don’t know where it is.  Yes you do.  It’s inside you.  It was always there.  I can see it… (279).

Later, as the man is dying: “The boy sat by the fire wrapped in a blanket watching him.  Drip of water.  A fading light.  Old dreams encroached upon the waking world.  The dripping was in the cave.  The light was a candle which the boy bore in a rigstick of beaten copper.  The wax spattered on the stones. Tracks of unknown creatures in the mortified loess.  In that cold corridor they had reached the point of no return which was measured from the first solely by the light they carried with them” (280).

Finally, when the boy meets the man who takes him in, he asks, “How do I know you’re one of the good guys?”  You don’t.  You’ll have to take a shot.  Are you carrying the fire?  Am I what?  Carrying the fire.  You’re kind of weirded out, aren’t you?  No.  Just a little.  Yeah.  That’s okay.  So are you?  What carrying the fire?  Yes.  Yeah.  We are” (285).

Write a paragraph with a substantive TOPIC SENTENCE to answer the following two questions.  Be sure to refer to the myth of Prometheus in your response.

·        What do you think McCarthy expects the reader to think as the boy equates being “the  good guys” with “carrying the fire”?  

·        What are some of the contradictions to this idea?  Does McCarthy resolve them?

Emily: Christo's Wrapped Package on a Hand Truck

Christo, the arist of this sculpture peice, was born in 1945. Christo grew up in the Soviet Block, and spent years surrounded by a culture which actively promoted half-truths and outright lies to its citizens, as a way of staying in power. When 'everybody knows what a thing looks like', that usually means that people have stopped noticing it. He studied art, and in 1958 started to become famous for his 'Packages and wrapped Objects'. This peice is called 'A Package on a Hand Truck'. Christo's way of wrapping things realtes to The Road because of the constant need for The Man and The Boy to see things in a different way. They were stuck in an apocalypse, and they still 'carry the fire'

Eddy's incredibly faint image

This is a barley visible smudge of graphite on a canvas. It was "drawn" by Shirazeh Houshiary an english "artist" originally from Iran. Shirazeh claims the idea for this painting was inspired when she saw her breath evaporate on a mirror and realized this was a representation of human life. As Shiazeh says " I realized this is who we really are—not concrete and not permanent, or definable. It is this illusive presence, which can only be experienced directly, a part of life, or breath.". I found this very similar to Cormac McCarthy's rather bleak out look on life in the road. Everything is fleeting and there is a constant knowing through out the book that the boy and the man will eventually fade, just like breath on a mirror.

Rie's George Grosz painting

This painting was done by George Grosz. He was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings. In November 1914 Grosz volunteered for military service praising "War to end wars". But he was given a discharge after hospitalization in 1915 and disillusioned by the reality of the war. In 1916 he changed the spelling of his name to George Grosz as a protest against German nationalism. And He joined the Berlin Dada(The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature. It concentrated its anti-war politics ) in 1917. He juxtaposed objects create a surreal experience. It represents a similar descent into hell as did the peace following World War I. He wanted to show how there's no peace in reality in terms of fighting in a war.

When I first saw this paining, I immediately thought the guy in the middle was just like the man in The Road. Both of them disillusion by the environment that surrounding them and have no hope for their life. Just walking straight. Also the darkness and the junks in the painting are caused by a national disaster like in the novel. 

Valerie's image

This is a painting by the artist Mark Bradford called Bread and Circuses. The painting is Mixed-media collage on canvas by 133 x 253 in. Bradford creates “collages” – works made of paper but with the visual impact of painting. The picture has many colors, is a small circle bright silver piece layered with drawings, string and paper. The connection between The Road and the art is that in life you have many ways you can take but you have to be careful and responsible taking the risks that might happen. In life they are good and bad guys but you have to protect yourself, being responsible, do your best and keep moving forward. 

Molly's minimalist sculpture

This piece is from a collection by sculptor David Smith (1906-1965) entitled 'Cubes and Anarchy' (The collection is quite aptly named, I thought, to be compared to The Road). He was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures. Perhaps his most revolutionary concept was that the only difference between painting and sculpture was the addition of a third dimension; he declared that the sculptor's "conception is as free as a that of the painter. His wealth of response is as great as his draftsmanship." His sculpting works were an expression of the energy he had after working as a welder during the Second World War. I find the precarious position of the cubes speaks volumes to many causes, not just The Road. In respects to the novel, the cubes represent the people still surviving on the barren Earth. Perhaps they don't want to be, but they are reliant on each other to stay alive; no cube could 'stand' without the cube below it. The precarious positioning and angel of the tower, I find, represents the fragile social structure exhibited in the novel. The thin disk at the base of the sculpture seems to be the anchoring element and the slight movement of it could possibly send the whole tower tumbling down, just as any wrong move from the man or the boy in The Road could send their small place in the world into ruins. 

Michael's ironic image

The artist who created this picture above is Maurizio Carrelan. He is known for his dark humor and is a comical artist who once made a sculpture of the pope hit with a meteor. This picture could be referring to chaos and fire being caused by humans and that we as a population are to blame. The art is closely related to the book because the apocalypse could have been caused by humans and that we could be responsible for our own demise. 

Rachel's Georgia O'Keefe drawing

Georgia O’Keeffe started taking classes at the University of Virginia for art teachers when she lost the confidence in achieving distinction in her art work. The art instructor, Arthur Wesley Dow, expressed to the class his belief on art: the goal of art was for the artist to express their personal ideas and feelings, such that the subject matter could be realized through the harmonious arrangements of line, color, and shading. O’Keefe took his belief to thought and tried to put his theory to a test. She began creating art to express her own emotions instead of imitating realism. In my opinion, O’Keefe created this charcoal drawing called No.8 to express the feeling of her being trapped. 

In the center of piece No.8 , there appears to be two people, one smaller than the other, being engulfed by the bleak vortex that surrounds them. This Drawing, in reference to The Road by Cormac McCarthy, depicts the man and his son being overcame by the dreary and bleak world around them. 

Gillian's image

This is a painting done by artist Qiu Anxiong. The picture is completed in black and white, and portrays a lifeless scene with what looks to be a never-ending road. The artist could have painted this at the time because of what he was feeling or to try to describe how he saw and connected to civilization at that point in time. This relates to the novel in the way that they both seem hopeless and lost. The characters in the novel relate to this painting because they are desperate to find a way out of the world and to find themselves. 

Mr. Kerr's image (Maya Lin is the designer of the Vietnam War Memorial)

Maya Lin's "Blue Lake Pass" is a study of landscape. This has been her interest since she was very young. She takes complex ideas about our relationship with the planet, and expresses them in simple forms. According to what I have read, she is trying to express a reverence for the natural world. She is an environmentalist not just in her ideals but in how she approaches our world itself.

Although the world portrayed in The Road is frightening, it is also beautiful. Even at its most destroyed, navigating the Earth can be a moving experience - in fact, without human company beyond his father, it is the majority of what the boy knows. There were accusations early in Lin's career that she was nihilistic. One could accuse McCarthy of the same thing, but I think that misses the point. As Maya Lin said herself, "We tend not to pay attention to that which is invisible.” 

Billy's photo

The photographer is Boris Mikhailov and this photo was taken in 1991. He took this photo because he was living in the Soviet Union at the time, and he wanted to express the trials of everyday life in the USSR. The photo portrays a man lying lifeless on the ground and everyone around him continuing on as if the lifeless man was commonplace. The connection between this photo and The Road is strong because in the photo the bystanders just continue on with life, and not care for the helpless man. This same selfishness is apparent in The Road, people don't want to interact because the world around them is all about surviving. 

Hayley's Richard Serra drawing

This is a painting by Richard Serra. The painting to me looks kind of aggressive. Its a circle with a lot of depth to it and angry splatters encompassing it. Maybe it was made to convey emotions he had about the universe at that time. He was angry about the way people on the earth were? The connection between this painting and the novel is pretty obvious. The painting could be similar to the way the earth would have looked in the Road after the apocalypse occurred. 

John's image

The artist of this drawing is Lyonel Feininger. He may have drawn this because of all of the oppression which occurred towards Jews in Germany while he lived there. Perhaps Feininger thought that this is the path that the world was going towards. The drawing portrays the world after the apocalypse. There is seemingly no life in a city which connects well to the novel. In the novel the boy asks his father how many people he thinks are alive which shows that both the book and the drawing touch upon the lack of life on earth.

Blog post #3: My image

Anselm Kiefer (age 66) is a German painter and sculptor.  His works, which are very large scale, begin with photographs and incorporate earth, clay and other natural materials, as well as writing (names and places of people of legendary or historical importance. His work is linked to a movement called “New Symbolism.” There’s a sort of primitive, rough look to his paintings, as if a violent event has taken place and this is all that’s left—they’re pretty depressing.  His work often centers on the horrors of the Holocaust; historical references include the ruins of Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War.

This painting reminds me of The Road because of the suggestion of a road stretching out beyond the horizon, with the surrounding landscape murky and undefined.  The man seems like he’s presenting himself as a sacrifice—who knows why.  The work is constructed using oil paint, paper and blood on canvas, which also seems fitting.  It’s called Parsifal III—Parsifal is the hero of Richard Wagner’s opera (Wagner was a big cultural icon in Nazi Germany) based on the legend of Percival, one of the Knights of the Round Table who searched for the Holy Grail.

Blog post #3:

Go online to one of the two museum sites below and find a painting or an installation that captures your feeling of what McCarthy conveyed as a main idea or message in The Road.  This could relate to character, to setting, or to theme.

http://www.moma.org/ (click on browse online collection)
http://www.whitney.org (click on collection)
Upload the image file and explain in a paragraph (85 words, minimum).  If you can't upload the image file, send me the URL and I'll figure out some way to post it.

·        Who the artist is and why he or she might have made this object?  (You will have to Google the artist).

·        Why you think it’s a good representation of this idea: What connection can you clearly   make between the novel and the art?