Part One --> Page 1 - 69

>> Establishment of setting.

>> Slight references to mother/family.

>> Gas station - try's to call home.

>> Road rat gets killed - flash back to wife at gun shot (when she leaves them).

Part Two --> Page 69 - 122

>> Running away from the cannibals.

>> Theatre (brief) light goes out while wife is pregnant. Turns quite dramatic - as he's running.

>> Straight to a calm scene abruptly.

>> Cannibals cellar.

>> Running away.

>> Scene ends outside the house on the floor.

>> The door of the house creeks (someones coming) - screams can be heard.

Part Three --> Page 122 - End

>> Starts in the dark outside the house, man wakes child - cuts to them walking down the road in darkness.

>> follows people, find baby on a spit 

>> the man gets shot with an arrow

>> the stuff gets stolen from the beech

>> the man dies

>> the boy goes with the other family

>> picturesque scene at the end

We have to have a fire

I'm scared

I know. But I'll just be a Little ways and ill be able to hear you so if you get scared you call me and I'll come right away.

I'm really scared

The sooner I go the sooner ill be back and we will have a fire and then you won't be scared anymore. Don't lie down. If you lie down you will fall asleep and then if I call you you won't answer and I won't be able to find you. Do you understand?

(Silence)

(Shakes head)

Okay. Okay. 

(The man stumbles up the bank and into the wood with his hands held out like a blind man  he starts kicking around putting them into a pile)

 

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.

Voice and Point of View

The Road is written in the third person, in the voice of an omniscient narrator, with the characters referred to as ‘he’ or ‘the boy’. However, within this, McCarthy manipulates and plays with the narrative voice and the point of view from which the story is seen. Here are some of the things you might find interesting to explore in relation to the narrative voice of The Road:

–  3rd person voice, omniscient point of view

–  3rd person voice, from the point of view of the man

–  3rd person voice, from the point of view of the boy

–  unattributed dialogue (i.e. without ‘he said’)

–  decontextualized dialogue (without commentary from the narrator)

–  unattributed thoughts (i.e. without ‘he thought’)

–  not signalling where the narrative ends and dialogue or the thoughts of a character in the first person begin

–  dream sequences related without a clear sense of whether it is in the third or first person

–  3rd person free indirect style where the reader not only feels he/she is seeing events from a character’s perspective but that it is in the character’s own words, not those of the narrative voice.

A scene from the SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE in the style of The Road

Firstly, I apologise that it is in two different clips to show which part it is that I am doing, I have chosen this part as it is the most similar to the road and the most gruesome part of the movie. Enjoy :).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgIzBmbI-zQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJ5qWvCVe0&feature=relmfu

Whilst driving down the dark, grey road, they spotted what was presumed to be a gas station. They drove towards the gas station carefully not knowing what may be lying in wait for them.

They were correct they had come across an old practically demolished gas station where two men greeted them with the lifting up of their caps, revealing the swollen faces of those who do not approve of travelling across the county line.

Where you two dumb kids headed?

We are men who are going across the county line. That is all you need to know.

Thats the place thats guarded by a killer Cyclops.

Thats right.

Take off your hat in respect. Respect for the dead.

We'll see about that.

 

They start to cross the county line when they are greeted yet again with an unattractive image of a person who would not be greeted in normal circumstances. He blocked their path.

Out of the car now okay?

Okay.

Okay.

 

They searched for a better way to respond other than to give up and go back home they carried on walking on the road which surely would be their death with the gas station workers uttering

They're dead.

Meanwhile they were unaware that they were being followed as shortly after their departure a 7ft vicious blood thirsty man came roaring through on his motorbike to which he noticed the gas station workers to witness his pursuit of the two. He ripped their mouths off, and drove away.

The Swarm.

This song made me think of The Road, because it is the end of the world, etc. It is a different reason as to why, but the lyrics are relevent. so yeah.. enjoy.

The end.

The ending.. Mine and others opinions.

In my opinion the ending is from page 299, line 11.

This is because it is when the boy starts to give up, and has to accept that their journey is over. Therefore ending the journey.

'In that cold corridor they had reached the point of no return which was measured from the first solely by the light they carred with them' This is basically saying that their journey was pointless, as wherever they went, it would be painful and full of stuf that before the apocalypse they did not wish to imagine.

Other peoples opinions..

The Beach
The whole journey is supposedly to the south, where they are expecting a new equilibrium, however they do not get it when they arrive at the south. 'I'm sorry its not blue' this is an apology from the father because they were looking forward to seeing colour because everything is grey, and now their hopes have been smashed therefore it is the end. 'Do you think that there is any ships out there. I dont think so' this shows the isolation, and what will always be isolation. Therefore meaning the end of the road.