Ana Lucia Echavarria's Last Child

Ana Lucia Echavarria's blog From Here to Density contains many post based on the novel The Road. The one I decided to comment on though, was The Last Child. I really like how talked about the boy being the last one on Earth and what the old man says to him. During this situation, everyone is in a state as desperation even though they are lucky since most of the others died. Living in such harsh conditions it is almost impossible to find a child with life. Due to this, I really like Ana Lucia's comment and emphasis on this subject. Nevertheless, she also used this blog for vocabulary. Although it is fine, I think it would be better if she did some sort of connection between this subject and the vocabulary she found.

Daniela Duarte's Vocab in the Road!

Daniela Duarte' blog, A Question Of Etiquette contains various styles and comments on different novels. Although all of her posts look great, I decided to focus on the vocabulary blog based on The Road. Her blog, called Vocab In The Road!, is composed of a creative matching of words. She chose eight words from the novel and found each definition. However, she decided not to give the definition next to the word, allwing the reader of her blog to do so. I think this is not only a creative way to explain the vocabulary, but also a way to interact with the audience, allowing them to learn in an effective way.

Searching For A Meaning

Tassled (91) - (n) A bunch of loose threads or cords bound at one end and hanging free at the other, used as an ornament on curtains or clothing, for example.
Phalanx (91) - (n) A compact or close-knit body of people
Kilned (106) - kiln (n) Any of various ovens for hardening, burning, or drying substances such as grain, meal, or clay, especially a brick-lined oven used to bake or fire ceramics.
Prybar (108) - pry bar (n) a heavy iron lever with one end forged into a wedge

Innocence Still Stands In A World Of Corruption

The man and the child are the main characters of The Road, and almost the only ones. Throughout the novel, they surpass various moments of fear, as they intend to survive after an unknown cause of fires. The few people that remain with life live with the same desperation as these two do. There is almost no food to be found, obligating the survivors to continue their struggle with hunger. Due to this, people see no other choice but cannibalism. Even though hunger is a tough factor affecting these people, there are even bigger fears like being found and eaten. Humanity has lost their sense, making the world one of corruption. However, the boy represents innocence. Unknowing the reasons for others’ actions, he sees nothing but people suffering. He continually asks his father “Are we still the good guys?” (77) since he finds himself in a state of confusion. When they hear some kind of noise, the father being naturally alarmed tells the child they must hide. However, the child doubts if “it’s the bad guys” (79) since his lack of knowledge doesn’t allow him to understand everyone and everything around them is a threat. Although the child is involved in the horrible situation, his lack of acquaintance represents him as an innocent child. He doesn’t want to accept things are happening and doesn’t realize involving another kid with them is nothing but dangerous and harmful to their health since they would have to share everything with the new member. Nevertheless, the boy insists on taking the child with them. The father tries to tell him no one was there but the boy continues saying “There’s a little boy, Papa…Yes there is. I saw him”. (84) The father knows taking the needy boy would only be a mistake, but the innocent son believes they should help him by taking him with them.

Innocence

Life Is Hanging By A Thread

Without knowing  the cause of the chaos, we know the man and his child keep running away. They had been alone so far but now they walked along with a stranger too. We know the situation is very dramatic due to the appearance of the new man. "He was burntlooking as the country, his clothing scorched and black. One of his eyes was burnt shot and his hair was but a nitty wig of ash upon his blackened skull."(49) The man, being in the same situation as our two main characters, had been just more unlucky as he had been "struck with lighting".(50) Despite the child's eagerness to help the dying man, they were all in a state of desesperation, lacking material, and "[with] no way to help him". (50) We understand at a more profound level how hard this escape has been as we learn what happened to the man's wife. McCarthy permits us to infer the child doesn't want to live anymore with the absence of his mother since after the child says he wants to be with her, he says: "you mean you wish that you were dead".(55) After being introduced to the mother, we comprehend she is a negative person when she says they are "the walking dead in a horror movie"(55). Not only this, but the mother wishes she would have commited suicide long time ago "when there were three bullets instead of two"(56). Trying to make her reason,  the man fails the task since she had decided death was her new lover. Despite his tries, he saves his season from his mother's crazy plan, but is unable to save his wife. Losing the woman wasn't their only sorrow or fear. Along the way, they had to confront a man that came off a truck. Being close to getting killed, the man and the child managed to escaoe after the man killed the stranger. McCarthy depicts the murder in the following: "The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the whole on his forehead", (66) traumatizing the young boy with this violent image. Finally, after they were safe again, they sit to eat along the road. We can infer this was a cold and awkward scene not only because of the situation that had taken place previously, but the father's words when he says "No. Of course not", (69) after the child shook his head when being offered to eat. After such a violent and scary moment, there was no way to feel anything but emptiness.

Trying To Survive, Is A War

I have previously described the relationship betwwen a man and his son, and their struggle to survive in a place where fires had taken place and almost nothing was left. Without knowing the cause of their fight and the abundant deaths present in the setting, I jumped to the conclusion that a natural disaster had occured. Nevertheless, my assumptions towards the situation begin to change due to the reaction of the characters as they hear noises. McCarthy says "In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees", (28) allowing me to deduce a war had been going on. Although I decided to believe this theory, I should not forget that this was only a deduction. The one thing I could be sure about, was that the situation was getting worse every time, limiting the possibilities of survival of the man and his child. We can sense the preocupation of both through their voices and the fear in their minds. The man "knew that if [the snow] got much deeper they would have to leave the cart",(30) making this a new worry for him. But this was not his only torment. He dreamed "he did not take care of her and she died alone somewhere in the dark".(32) Although we remain unconscious of the meaning of this dream and the woman, I can not help but believe it has a connection to the man's wife. I was driven to this conclusion since there is no a presense of a mother or female figure with them and the dream somehow worries our main character. Throughout the next pages of the novel, McCarthy describes the situations they live the following days. Although they were sometimes lucky like when "they slept in the truck"(45)they found one night, their nightmare wasn't over. Even though there is not a direct connection present between the novel and World War II, I associate them both since I have seen several similarities between them.

World War II was a difficult time that involved various countries and along many people. The Road and this historic event are not alike in the way that they don't narrate the same situation nor the characters live under the same circumstances. Nevertheless, I find plenty similarities since both times are of struggle for survival. One being influenced by violence and the other by a still unknown cause, both let us sense desperation, hope, and love. Many of the victims of the Holocaust felt the three same feelings listed above as they were desperate to survive, hoping to live, and loving their significant ones. Probably I wasn't the only one to sense relationships between these two events, but the misteries of The Road and the possibility of more connections to World War II, are still left to be discovered.

Only With Each Other

As we are introduced to the book, we sense a cold feeling generated by the details of the setting. Described as a place where "nights [were] dark beyond darkness and the days more gray than what had gone before", (3) we immedietely infer the characters are experiencing a negative situation. The main character is accompanied by a child whom he stares at while the infant sleeps. Since the kid had been delineated as "the child sleeping beside him" (3), we deduce he is an indifferent character to the main one. Nevertheless, this image changes when the man states that "the child was his warrant".(5) Without knowing what type of guarantee he was, we can at least foresee that the infant is important in some way to the man. With many possibilities in our heads, only the fact that the child is the son is the one that remains. Although we detect coldness between the two characters through their way of dialogue as they don't say much more than "Yes. Of course", (10) we are certain of their familial relationship since the young boy calls the man "Papa".(5) Even though at the beginning we felt distance between the two individuals, we then know this was just a wrong assumption since love is abundant between the two characters. The man shows care for the youngster as "he held the boy shivering against him"(14) and always walks next to him as they moved through the roud heading to the south of the country.

Cormac McCarthy, the author of the novel, describes the surrounding in the following: "The city was mostly burned". (12) Due to the previous imagery description, the constant mention of ash, and the portrayal of the dead given by McCarthy as he depicts: "The mummied dead everywhere. The flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taut as wires", (24) we learn the characters are not the only ones living a negative situation. Knowing that the characters are experiencing difficulties to find food and cloth, deaths are present, and fires were exuberant, we understand the march of these males is one for survival. Hence, we can now answer our previous question about what type of assurance the boy was to the man. Fighting for their survival in a solitary country, we presume the minor is the man's only hope.