Voice and Point of View (I think)

Page 306:

‘Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing

In the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of

moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.’

I felt that this paragraph was a nice finish to a gruesome story It was a picturesque image of what they have longed for throughout the novel, as it is a slight referencing to what the man has been dreaming of, however he would never get to see his final dream. I feel that the paragraph is filmic; as you can imagine a film running as someone is narrating it. However, there are many different possibilities of who the narrator could be, as different people have had the chance of following them, such as the family, or the boy, etc. I think that the paragraph is very different to the rest of the novel, as it shows a proper image in full description of something beautiful. However, with the language used, I think that it is exactly the same as the rest of the novel as it still uses the repetition of ‘and’, also the lists, and the short sentences.

What does this extract do to me?

This extract confuses me, as the picturesque images are not what I would of expected at the end of the novel, as throughout the novel McCarthy portrays the image of desolation and death, but at the end there is a beautiful scene, I just don’t understand what McCarthy was thinking when he put this in the novel. However, I think that McCarthy purposely attempts to confuse the reader as he always wants them to link any mentioning of an apocalypse to the road, in a way which would impact them greatly, as they would just picture cannibals, death, and a grey landscape. However, I also think that this extract affected me in a way of Realisation, as McCarthy is very specific in making sure that the reader thinks that there is no beauty or life in the world anymore, but this paragraph helps to realise that there will always be a hint of beauty in the novel, no matter what.