30 Minute Question- How does McCarthy tell the story in pages 1-28 of The Road?

30 Minute Question- How does McCarthy tell the story in pages 1-28 of The Road?

Beginning in media-rez, within the first 28 pages of this novel, we are introduced to the two main characters; the man and the boy. We learn that they are continuing to travel towards South on a road in search for some form of safety, struggling to survive in the destruction of a post-apocalyptic world.  McCarthy’s distinct style of writing presents this world as something similar to a wasteland which is lost and almost forgotten for example, “nights beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before.   Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away from the world” creates the idea of a saturation of life and the reference to “glaucoma” which is an eye condition where sight is clouded, could link to the presentation of a clouding of humanity or morality.

Interestingly, McCarthy employs a brickolage of low and high cultured things which connote to the lost world that takes things that had little significance, for example toe Coca-cola and places them to suggest that there is little left to be valued in the world and therefore, the father and the son value objects like this and the grocery-cart with great importance.  Although, it could be argued that these items lead to their own destruction of civilisation.  Within the lexis, the setting conforms to the genre of a horror from the beginning, “alabaster bones cast up in the shadows on the rocks behind it” and suggests a super naturalistic and ambiguous style. McCarthy’s detailed imagery paints a realistic image that is somewhat harrowing and threatening with an element of uncertainty within the “murk”, “standing smoke” and “rolled away in the gritty fog” as if something is being concealed from the readers.  The reference to the “dead trees” visage a world without oxygen that is suffocating in death and the word “barren” that is repeated implies isolation through the destruction society has caused. The prominent sense of industrialisation, for example “concrete” implies something permanent and irremovable and this builds with the rhythm created, “carried forth and scattered and carried forth again” to display a repetitive life that is “dead to the root”. 

The narrative perspective is established as an omniscient third person narrator however in a free indirect style, it is focused through the protagonist, the man, as we see his thoughts, memories and perceptions of the events that are happening around him. Within scenes where McCarthy is painting a picture through the man’s eyes, the narrative slows down and immerses the reader in the time and place for example, “the shape of the city stood in the gayness like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste. Nothing to see. “Also, at moments, through the use of short declarative sentences, there is a feeling of a cold detachment which mitigates the tragedy of the horrific moments, “the bones of a small animal, dismembered and placed in a pile”. This links to the characterisation of the man and the boy that McCarthy portrays, as through this indirect style, the man may be trying to hide the true horrors from the boy and therefore he doesn’t describe the full ruin of scenes and develops a lack of emotion. 

The opening of the conversational style of language between the father and son, “I’m right here. I know” expresses the tone for their relationship for the rest of the novel. They provide a paradox of characterisation, the man constantly detaching himself from humanity and the pain of the destruction in order to survive, whilst the son symbolising the fundamental nature of humanity.  The element of trust between these two characters as “each the others world entire” strains the insecurities that they both have towards their lack of control, “nameless dark come to enshroud them” and there is the idea they are being swallowed up by nature. A religious allegory that refers to the boy, “if he is not the word of God, God never spoke” conveys perhaps that the boy is the fathers only hope and guidance, similar to how God sent Jesus to earth to save human kind and this further relates to the purpose of protecting the boy and the mans key motivation for the boy to survive.   When looking at the sense of journey within this American novel and referring to religious aspects, for the man it is a “pilgrimage to death”. 

Throughout within their relationship, there is the theme of protection and responsibility, as portrayed when the father regards the son as his “warrant”. Although a strong character, the father also holds certain vulnerability when regarding his past; for example when they find his old house, he stops suddenly and a familiarity and desperation is revealed in which he is unable to move from. In contrast, the boy’s character is more direct in the sense of displaying his own vulnerability. The boy’s character is more direct in the sense of displaying vulnerability. As a child, he wants his father to “read him a story” yet there is also a sense of maturity and growing responsibility. When the father works, “the boy sat watching everything” perhaps he knows that he will have to take on this role one day and as “the father left the boy standing in the road holding a pistol” he understands the trust that the father has within him. 

The structure of his sentences, with the use of commas that fade within this opening section of the story and the repetition of “and”, outline  that they are not only their never ending journey, but also trapped within the disintegration and decay of society.  The chronological layout from McCarthy, “it took two days”, “in the morning they went on”, “by dusk of the following day” creates a flow of sequences that they are unable to escape or break which could link to the theme of a loss of control as everything is merging together.  McCarthy also includes moments of analepsis when the man dreams, they are regarded as his sense of weakness, containing memories and the constant lure of death, “and his dreams so rich in colour, how else would death call you?” The “flowering wood” and the “phantom wood” almost taunt the father and as he refers to them as “Dreams” not “nightmares” it connotes something that he wants to achieve (he wants to be released from this world but his son’s existence is stopping this). Referring to the past, McCarthy conveys that there once was a life that existed that wasn’t dark and hopeless for example when he describes the mother’s beauty, “stockings” and “summer dress”.