Essay about the road

Submitted By Tobii-Olutade
Words: 1144
Pages: 5
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From page 284, the story starts to change a little. As the man is injured and things start to get real serious and intense, as the man knows that his time is running up, and it’s like he feels like he still has a lot to teach hid boy, but with so little time. It takes a small turn as the man is in pain and the boy is frightened, and more restless. The boy starts to make less rational decisions, which clearly shows the man that the boy does not know what to do. Which then makes the man a little more impatient than he normally is with the boy, and a bit more ironhanded with him. McCarthy starts using more of the man and boy’s actions to continue the story than the two speaking to each other, to having less punctuation at some parts for the reader to feel the time consuming situation and how much longer the man will actually survive.
One of the main methods employed by McCarthy in bringing the story to a close is the tone, at the beginning of the novel the tone varies from emotional to circumstantial, through which McCarthy is able to convey the most minute details pertaining to the daily lives of the man and his boy as well as showing their relationship. However towards the end the tone cascades from an almost hopeful tone to a more dull-colored depressing reflection of the events goings on.
After the man is injured and needs to tend to his wounds it is explained that he takes the first aid kit ‘without comment’ in the light of the his treatment of the boy earlier in the book the father appears cold and unfeeling as opposed to his previous seemingly joyful demeanor. Also prior to this display of stoicism from the Father he is described as shouting to the boy ‘Get the first-aid kit, damn it’ this random outburst of anger adds to the tone of hopelessness and the emergence of what appear to be true emotions. Which gives the reader an idea that the father can no longer withhold his emotions, and because he has held them in so much, they are all out bursting together at once, which shows a but of slight confusion, like the man doesn’t know what to do anymore and all determination or good vibes are gone.
McCarthy also provides a dark omen in the dialogue, earlier in the book as a hopeful tone is maintained through the reassurances of the father but on page 298 there is a drastic change. The boy says ‘You said you wouldn’t ever leave me’ which is met with a reply of ‘I know. I’m sorry’. This piece of dialogue is drastically different from other examples, there is no reassurance and no motivational response, the Man has accepted his fate and wants to make peace with the Boy before his death; this dark, macabre tone continues on to the point of the Father’s death when the child awakes to find his dad lifeless and ‘stiff’.
Another different method of McCarthy’s way of telling the story would be the dystopian (an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. ) text; this ranges from the setting to the man and boy’s actions. An example of this would be “He sat in the road”; this would be categorized as dystopian because a typical road in modern reality would have car’s driving by frequently, even in small side roads would have some cars going by that it would not be safe to sit in the road. This can also imply that something unpleasant has happened to the majority of the people, therefore they decided to sit in an open space like that. It could also suggest that gas could have run out by then, making it hard for cars to function. One more quote that shows dystopia has taken place from page 292, “He coughed all the time and the boy watched him spitting blood”; in a typical reality like today, it would be common for someone who coughed constantly to seek medical help.
McCarthy also makes use of third-person narrative, which gives the reader an outside perspective, but at times appears to show the goings-on through the eyes of the two characters as well.
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