This document discusses the novel "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It explores various theories about what catastrophe caused the post-apocalyptic setting of the book, including nuclear war, volcanic eruption, biological warfare, and an attack by the American government. Students are assigned readings from the book and asked to discuss symbols and concepts in an online post. The class will next examine postmodernism, critical theory and the American Dream in relation to "The Road", and students must submit a paper or revision and complete an honors project by the next class.
6. Set in a conceivable future, after a global
catastrophe, The Road tells the story of a father and a
son as they tread along a forsaken highway awash with
marauders and cannibals.
It is perhaps the most chilling commentary of the post-
9/11 world. The post-apocalyptic setting plays upon the
public‘s fear of terrorism, pandemics, genocide, and
weapons of mass destruction.
We can also hear the poetic passages of desolation and
are reminded of Dante‘s descent into hell or T. S. Eliot‘s
The Waste Land.
McCarthy also wrestles with the ever-present question of
the existence of God: the father tells the boy, ―There is no
God and we are his prophets.‖
7. The Setting
The Road is set in some undetermined location.
There is mention of distant mountains, several rivers
and creeks, the Piedmont (a plain that runs along the
eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains), and a
coastline.
The landscape and the air are soaked in thick, gray ash.
Vegetation has been destroyed. There are no fish in the
water.
When snow falls, it collects the ash in the air and falls to
the earth already gray.
9. The land is completely dead [. . .] most of the
people seem to be dead too. [G]ray ash [falls]
from the sky. [. . . ] ―[Marchers‖ are] ―dressed in
clothing of every description, all wearing red
scarves at their necks‖. The narrator also
described ―slaves in harnesses‖ who were pulling
―goods of war.‖ [P]regnant women [wear] fitted
dog collars.
[I]n the first years of the devastation, it says that
the roads had people, but they would be
―wearing masks and goggles‖ (15).
extreme war
10. Post-nuclear-war: ―The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long
shear of light and then a series of low concussions. He
got up and went to the window…He went into the
bathroom and threw the lightswitch but the power
was already gone. A dull rose glow in the
windowglass. He dropped to one knee and raised the
lever to stop the tub and then turned on both taps as
far as they would go. (52)‖
At first I was confused about the mentioning of a
bathtub, but with a little research, I found filling a
bathtub with water is one of the smartest things you
can do in the event of a nuclear disaster. It can store
large amounts of water for you, which will be
beneficial once the neighborhood‘s (or world‘s)
plumbing ceases to function. Also, the shear of
light, low concussions and ―a dull rose glow in the
windowglass‖ reminds me of bombs being dropped
in the area.
nuclear-war
11. I suspected the disaster was nuclear war, so I did a
quick perusal of Google results for ―effects of
nuclear war.‖ I scanned quickly through the first five
or so articles, and learned that a nuclear bomb
would cause an EMP, which would account for the
clocks stopping. The rose-colored light they saw in
the story could have been caused by thermal
radiation. Then there would be a fireball and
possibly firestorms. Many people would be killed
instantly or burned in the resulting fires, which we see
in the mummified, dried, burned bodies everywhere.
The articles hypothesized that the dust and ash from
the explosion would enter the stratosphere, blocking
out the sun, which we see in the book when the boy
asks if he flew high enough, could he see the sun.
Nuclear War
12. War plus Volcano
I believe that there were two explosions: one was a
bomb, most likely of nuclear proportions, and the
other, was a natural disaster, a volcano that erupted. ‗In
Yellow Stone National Park, there is a ―super-volcano,‖
that, if it erupts, would have the force one-thousand
times more than the Mt. Saint Helen eruption of 1980‘
(World‘s Largest Volcano-Yellow Stone National Park).
Also, this story was written in 2006, a short 10 years after
the Cold War- a peak in the nuclear arms race. My
hypothesis is that both of these explosions occurred. First
the nuclear explosion, another country bombed the
U.S, and due to the major explosion, unearthed the
volcano that sits beneath Yellow Stone causing another
eruption that increased the amount of devastation.
13. ―Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill
us. They will rape me. They‘ll rape him. They are
going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you
wont face it‖ (17). They being whatever survived
and reverted to such a primal state. As such, I refer
to the ―I Am Legend‖ scenario I just mentioned. The
humans who were infected are mutated to the
point that they only have their motor functions and
the base desire to mate and eat like animals.
I agree with Carlos in that the destruction is more of
a biological one than perhaps a nuclear one.
Although there‘s a lot of talk about the dismal
quality of the land, it all seems to still be
intact, ―Everything as it once had been save faded
and weathered‖.
biological warfare
14. BURNING
Still, it feels like the land was burned—that somehow
people did this, people all over just began to light the
world up, a global inferno, taking out the electrical
grids and then the water, etc, and the forests too. It
could have been an asteroid, perhaps, or a super
volcano, or something along those lines—both would
explain the endless ash just as well—but then there
wouldn‘t have been lurking and hidden
suspicion, there would have been blatant mass
preparation. And when it did happen, everyone would
have known. Most convincingly, the father would have
a better story to tell his son: the universe
happened, son, and this is what became of us. Instead
it‘s an endless tale of ‗I don‘t know,‘ and of being the
good guys, of avoiding the bad guys.
15. The question is which of these disasters came first –
the great spiritual loss of morality, or the earth‘s
physical rejection of life? Did the loss of morality
cause the disaster, or did the disaster cause the
loss of morality?
Following this line of thought, the biggest mystery
is whether the catalyzing catastrophe was man-
made (such as WMD) or from without, such as an
unforeseen natural disaster (my bet would be on
a massive meteor impact) (there are even two or
three references to aliens in the book, such as
when the father sees his son as looking like an
alien – a child of a world shaped by aliens
maybe? Even if not directly relating to aliens, it
invokes schema for outer space).
Massive Meteor
16. I would assume that the devastation has been
caused by a war within the United States. I don‘t
think that the United States was attacked by any
other country, but instead by their own corrupt
government. There are a few reasons why I think
this. The first is that the father in the story has
classified people as the ―good guys‖ and the
―bad guys‖. He does not mention any other
country or any type of foreign presence that
could have caused all of the devastation. The
second reason for this is when the man and his son
find some food, but the father worries that it is
poisoned. I think that perhaps whatever radical
government was in charge, was attempting to kill
off groups of people by poisoning them. The final
reason that I think it was a corrupt government, is
the fact that people were expecting all of this to
happen.
American Government
Attack on the people
17. End of Days
Tuesday: The Road: Concepts; Symbols
Wednesday: The Road: Postmodernism; Critical
Theory; The American Dream; Introduce Essay #2
Thursday: The quarter in review; Self-Assessment;
Discuss Exam #3
Monday: Optional Class: Make-up Exam #1 or
#2
8:30 am showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Thursday, June 27: Final: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Exam #3
Due electronically before class: Essay #2, Essay
revision; Honors project.
18. HOMEWORK
Read The Road: to the three/quarter point:
page 72 in the online version. Stop here: ―One
vast salt sepulcher. Senseless. Senseless.‖
Post # 38: Discuss one:
Examine the concept of trust and mistrust in the
The Road.
Analyze the symbol of innocence and how it
pertains to the son in The Road.
Introduce another concept or symbol
Start thinking about your next essay. Some
possible prompts are posted. Remember, you
can pursue any topic you would like as long as
it concerns a text or texts from the second half
of the quarter.
