Allusions Other than the Biblical Kind Essay example

Submitted By marksteven2280
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Allusions Other than the Biblical Kind in The Road After reading McCarthy’s The Road, One may acknowledge the presence of many biblical allusions. The environment of the post-apocalyptic world is itself an allusion to effects described in the Book of Revelation. McCarthy’s text in the novel, which is ³rich in religious, primarily Christian terminology (Grindley 2)´ , and his mentioning of words such as ³Christendom´,³creedless´, and the McCarthy patented ³godspoke´ is yet another example of a biblical allusion in
The Road. However, other allusions, possibly not as evident and obvious, lie within the pages as well. In addition, there may be ways to further interpret these allusions, and not simply identify them as biblical. And what is more,
The old man says that his name is Ely, though he later says this is not his true name. He claims to be ninety years old in order to protect himself from the bad guys, a maneuver that Ely admits does not always work. Ely has a very long and serious conversation with the man about the state of the world and hope it would end up. “Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave…. There is no God and we are his prophets”. A lot of clues point to the conclusion that Ely, the only named figure in The Road (though he claims this is not his true name), is an allusion to Elijah the prophet. In biblical references, Elijah signifies the coming of the Messiah, the savior who will bring people out of their suffering. In the novel, this figure could