The Road, Post 1

5. McCarthy's novel is a stark contrast to Kerouac's in terms of language. While Kerouac is lyrical, loud, and colorful, McCarthy's style is dark and sparse. How does McCarthy's style lend to the story itself? Cite text for support. Who is his audience? How can you tell?

McCarthy's style is much too slow for me. Kerouac's pace and language is more my style, and I honestly think that McCarthy's sparseness took away from the story and didn't lend much to it at all. There was this grey element that he managed to spread over everything, and though that went with the theme of the story, it added a layer of depression over the depression you already experience from the situation in the story alone. I don't think I'm only speaking for myself when I say i got tired of the repetition. At times, it was nice that he reiterated things, but constantly mentioning how barren and soot laden everything was, was kind of monotonous. "The faint light all about, quivering and sourceless, refracted in the rain of the drifting soot." (15) McCarthy had absolutely no sense of urgency when he created this storyline, and maybe there doesn't need to be any urgency, but perhaps if he had pulled the story out of darkness every once and a while, he would spark more interest in his readers.