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?
Within the first ten pages of The Road you can tell that darkness is a common trend. Every morning the man wakes up to darkness. Not only is it dark, but also gray. A lot of things are gray including the snow and water which just makes wherever they are seem to be the dreariest place.
However, because of all of the dark things, it makes the light things just pop out more. Whenever something not so lifeless is mentioned, it is about the boy and the man and what they are enjoying or doing. They are the good and they are the light in the darkness. Even if it is but a small light. It is the love they share for each other which bursts color into this gray world. Even how the boy has such great aspirations for the future. “The child had his own fantasies. How things would be in the south. Other children”(54). He still believes that there is hope down south and pushes forward with his dying dad to reach this unknown place of haven.
The audience of this novel is probably just anyone wondering about the future. It would have to be a mature audience in order to fully understand it, but other than that the audience has a pretty wide range to anyone that cares about the apocalypse.
1 comment:
I like your point about the only light coming from the man and the boy and their activities. McCarthy relates light to life, (which makes perfect sense); the only color I remember being mentioned was the orange of the frequent forest fires and the (possible) blue of the oceans. Amidst the dead vegetation and corpses of various animals, the fire was the only living thing, and was described as bright orange. While forest fires are generally feared in a pre-apocalyptic world, the man and the boy didn't regard them with any particular fear. This was because in comparison to the dead earth, the fire was a welcomed sight. Even the father and son's repeated mentioning of "carrying the fire" is a reference to their determination to carry the power of love (however lame it sounds) and light through the desolate earth. Thus, McCarthy intentionally uses fire as a symbol of life, and emphasizes this by describing it's vivid color.
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