Kodi Smit-McPhee

Every Trip is a Quest: The Road to Self-Knowledge A road leads to a destination. In How To Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas Foster advises “When a character hits the road, we should start to pay attention, just to see if, you know, something’s going on there” (6). Given that Cormac McCarthy titled his novel, The Road, Foster provides a “heads-up” that something special is about to happen. The challenge is to dig beneath the surface, and discover the underlying gem hidden by the author. With Foster’s insight, this task becomes less overwhelming. Understanding the archetypal quest described by Foster allows a deeper comprehension of “the road” which the characters travel upon on their journey to self-knowledge. Simply, a quester must decide to travel. Foster describes a quester as someone “who goes on a quest, whether or not he knows it’s a quest” (3). McCarthy introduces the characters from the onset: “When he woke . . . he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him” (3). Furthermore, Foster explains that during the second part of the quest a hero must go somewhere. As the boy and his father travel along the road of the post-apocalyptic world, they have one destination in mind: the south. Explicitly, the father comments on the journey and challenges that lie ahead. This is evidenced by “We have to keep moving. We have to keep heading south.” Later, the child reaffirms this destination by bluntly and simply asking his father “Where are we going?”…

The Dark Side of Innocence The world is filled with desperation, where survival and self-reliance is the only way to live, and every minute, every second, and every single breath is precious. In an apocalyptic situation, wherein one’s survival is the priority, McCarthy reveals a repentant and ashamed tone towards the evil deeds humans are essentially forced to do for their own survival. In the novel The Road, author Cormac McCarthy utilized forthright diction and significant details to epitomize…

The Road, a story of the nameless father and son “survivors” (55) in a world of nothingness, is told in such a distinctive way that their bond and true exertions to survive are relayed effortlessly to readers without even noticing. After an abrupt, unexplained end of the world, the father and son are two of very few survivors left on Earth. Their struggle is evident through cannibalistic encounters, the suicide of the man’s wife and the boy’s mother, and the sole battle between life and death…

In the post-apocalyptic novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, McCarthy outlines a gray desolate story about and man and his son travelling a road riddled with macabre obstacles to reach the Southern Coast. The man and the boy begin travelling because it will soon be winter, and winter will be especially inclement, the world is covered in ash, which creates a dark blanket over the Earth. For, before the birth of the boy a never identified catastrophe ravaged the earth with fire, leaving few…

A definition of being a human means having and showing emotions for things. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, was published in 2006 and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This book tells a story of an unnamed catastrophe that has struck the world. A journey is taken by a young boy and his father who travel through the rough terrain of the United States. McCarthy uses the setting of an apocalyptic world to illustrate how the presence of compassion and forgiveness overcome evil and create a…

Living in harmony with people during a time of despair is like trying to have 5 people live off one apple for a week; it will not work.. The Road written by Cormac McCarthy tells the heartfelt story of Papa and his boy making a growling journey to the East coast. Papa and the boy live in a world that lacks compassion: though they resist the temptation of sinful acts and live honest lives. Maintaining sensitivity on the road is not easy, but the man knows showing kindness and tolerance to the…

The Road by Cormac Mccarthy (2006) portrays the idea of a man and his son surviving in a post apocalyptic world. Through tough conditions, the man and his son create a bond that makes them depend on natural resources and each other to survive. The hard times bring many emotions that show how caring they are for each other. Cormac Mccarthy illustrate the boys compassion towards others through his characterization of speech and emotion. First, the author illustrates the compassion of the boy…

A Road for Two Imagine losing every material possession once held dear, only to be placed in a world all too dark, desolate, and dead. Pain and suffering become a new normal as a grasp on uncertain life loosens and hope becomes a treasured rarity. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a touching tale, mirroring the aforementioned circumstance with a poetic and realistic nature. A man and his young boy are the two main characters, unencumbered by others and remaining nameless throughout the entire…

Why does God let the earthquake in Haiti happened? I think about it all the time and that I still cannot realize the explanation why God let it happened. This earthquake modified the entire country and alter many of us lives. I’m one amongst the individuals whose life I have been modified when the earthquake. it had been January twelfth on the evening, I was playing soccer with a number of my friends, we tend to were having fun, however when a few minutes of enjoying we tend to felt just like…

My life during third grade was like many other children. I would go to school Monday thru Friday and come home every day and complete my homework and then spend time with friends, watching TV, or playing in my room. Every Friday that I would come home from school and have my piano lesson and then relax. That was everyday routine, but one cold Friday afternoon changed my routine for the rest of my life. On a cold Friday in the middle of February, I returned home from school and expected to have…