Comparison Essay
The Road & The Last Day of the World
When reading the short stories in parallel to “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, only one truly stood out to me as directly related in theme, portrayal, and literary style. This has to be “The Last Day of the World” by Ray Bradbury. Both stories have deep rooted themes around nihilism and death, but are substantially distinct in their portrayal of these ideas. The premise is the same as the rest of the short stories; it is the end of the world, how will people react, adapt, cooperate, fight... McCarthy focuses his story on the developments of characters adapting to their situation, where in contrast Bradbury seemingly sets focus on the lack of developments. They start to end on much different note, but both endings leave a taste of dissatisfaction in the audience’s mouth. These two authors offer a …show more content…
Just as “The Road”, this text is character centric. It revolves around their interactions, conversations, and traits as opposed to setting or conflict. This is why both texts never truly reveal the source of the conflict/end of the world. Where they differ, is while McCarthy focuses on character advancements, Bradbury focuses on the lack of change. His characters start the same way they end, ““How can we sit here and talk this way?" "Because there’s nothing else to do."” (Bradbury, 3). Even though the world is ending, they know they are going to die, they just chose to accept it instead of fighting like the father from “The Road”. Nothing from their schedule changes, they continue their day, and everything is normal until they go to sleep. Instead of changing into cannibals and murderers, the dystopia Bradbury creates simply says people will “Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch television, play cards, put the children to bed, go to bed themselves, like
The Road & The Last Day of the World
When reading the short stories in parallel to “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, only one truly stood out to me as directly related in theme, portrayal, and literary style. This has to be “The Last Day of the World” by Ray Bradbury. Both stories have deep rooted themes around nihilism and death, but are substantially distinct in their portrayal of these ideas. The premise is the same as the rest of the short stories; it is the end of the world, how will people react, adapt, cooperate, fight... McCarthy focuses his story on the developments of characters adapting to their situation, where in contrast Bradbury seemingly sets focus on the lack of developments. They start to end on much different note, but both endings leave a taste of dissatisfaction in the audience’s mouth. These two authors offer a …show more content…
Just as “The Road”, this text is character centric. It revolves around their interactions, conversations, and traits as opposed to setting or conflict. This is why both texts never truly reveal the source of the conflict/end of the world. Where they differ, is while McCarthy focuses on character advancements, Bradbury focuses on the lack of change. His characters start the same way they end, ““How can we sit here and talk this way?" "Because there’s nothing else to do."” (Bradbury, 3). Even though the world is ending, they know they are going to die, they just chose to accept it instead of fighting like the father from “The Road”. Nothing from their schedule changes, they continue their day, and everything is normal until they go to sleep. Instead of changing into cannibals and murderers, the dystopia Bradbury creates simply says people will “Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch television, play cards, put the children to bed, go to bed themselves, like