The Road (question 5, post 4)

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, while perhaps being inherently dark, accents the darkness in the book. I haven't read any of his other work, so I can't really say if his style is like that all the time. However, due to the nature of the story, a darker, more barren sort of writing is entirely appropriate. In a way, it repeats his repetitious style (if that makes any sense). What I mean is, McCarthy seemed to say the same thing many times over, and that tendency shows itself in how he wrote the book; ie. dark book, dark style.

The more I think about it, the more I see ways that McCarthy's writing reflects the world he has created. One of the first things i noticed (after the lack of quotation marks), was that many of the descriptive sentences were very, very short, almost fragments. "Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence."(11) There are many other passages similar to this scattered all throughout the book, where it seems as though there should be commas or semicolons instead of periods. What this lends itself to, in my mind, is that there really isn't much to say about this gray, bleak world. The seemingly fragmented sentences are representative of the fragmented and dying world the boy and his father are forced to wander in.
Looking at the last part of the question, I must say I don't really know. I mean, other than the obvious audience of those reading the book, I can't really tell if the story is aimed at any particular group. I guess it could be aimed at fathers, to show how the bond they have with their children should be cherished and protected, as it could one day be the only thing to keep you going. It could also be somewhat of a dig towards those in power, who seem intent on continuing the destructive path they walk. That, however, is a scant connection, as the cause of the the fires is not told in the story. Okay, I guess I do kind of know who it could be aimed at.