7. If every book is an author's attempt to answer one of life's questions, what question is McCarthy and/or Kerouac attempting to answer? Explain.
One question that could be answered by McCarthy's novel, "The Road", would be "What to do when the most important person in your life is gone?". Every morning, the father would cough up blood, but he would still have the energy to keep on going. He kew his son was there, that needed him. A child, at whatever age, does need someone for support to get them going in their lives. The son's father was his support. No matter how much the father walked away from the son, his child was able to hear him cough. Though they might have been going through a hopeless situation, the father and the son were able to walk a long journey together across a dark and cold landscape. There are parents that think of themselves first, but this father is an example of a real father. A man that would care for his son first than his own health and needs. While the child would be asleep, the father would check up on him if he was still breathing, to check if his heart was still beating. By the end of the novel, the father becomes very ill and dies, leaving the boy behind, alone. By the time I was done with the novel, I noticed how the boy had gained his own courage and strength by watching his father throughtout their journey. Till the last day the man was alive, his goal was to protect his son no matter what. Like some people, I believe that when someone dies, it is the body that dies only. One thing the boy should know that even if his father is not physically with him, he will always be spiritually and emotionally. His own father told him that he could still speal to him in his imagination. The absense of someone we loved the most would leave us with a big hole in our lives. When a loved one dies, there's this intense pain inside and his son must have felt it as well. But he had the strength within him to move on for himself. That was what the father would have wanted for his son.
1 comment:
I loved your question! :) I agreed that the son is the most important person in the man's life, and that's who he stays alive for. The woman didn't have the strength to save her son, in the way his father did, so she took the one way out she knew, but the man can keep going, as long as he has the boy. He puts his son first, because he's such a good father.
Also, with the man, the boy is completely lost, and he "knelt beside his father, and held his cold hand, and said his name over and over again." (281) I think that when you lose the most important person in your life, you just have to decide that life is worth living, and somehow find the strength in yourself to keep going, even if your alone on the road.
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