1. THE ROAD STUDY GUIDE
Term 1 2012
"By day the banished sun circles the
earth like a grieving mother with a lamp."
Described as the “American against the lawless bands
master”, Cormac McCarthy The Road is a that stalk the road, the
is one of the world’s greatest clothes they are wearing, a
living novelists. His style is frightening, cart of scavenged food--and
characterised by his profound tale that each other.”
philosophical pessimism, drags us into places
thin plots, reductive The Road is the profoundly
sentences and restrained
we don't want to go, moving story of a journey. It
vocabulary. forces us to think boldly imagines a future in
about questions we which no hope remains, but
“Cormac McCarthy’s tenth don't want to ask. in which the father and his
novel, The Road, is his most son, "each the other's world
harrowing yet deeply Ron Charles, entire," are sustained
The Washington Post
personal work. Some by love. Awesome in the
unnamed catastrophe has totality of its vision, it is an
scourged the world to a unflinching meditation on the
burnt-out cinder, inhabited by “A father and his son walk worst and the best that we
the last remnants of alone through burned are capable of: ultimate
humankind. The sky is America. Nothing moves in destructiveness, desperate
perpetually shrouded by dust the ravaged landscape save tenacity, and the tenderness
and toxic particulates; the the ash on the wind. It is cold that keeps two people alive in
seasons are merely varied enough to crack stones, and the face of total devastation.
intensities of cold and when the snow falls it is The novel was awarded the
dampness. Bands of gray. The sky is dark. Their 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
cannibals roam the roads destination is the coast, and the James Tait Black
and inhabit what few although they don't know Memorial Prize for Fiction in
dwellings remain intact in the what, if anything, awaits them 2006. Sources:
woods.” there. They have nothing; just http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/works/
theroad.htm, http://www.randomhouse.com/
a pistol to defend themselves kvpa/cormacmccarthy/
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2. Tips
THE ROAD Study Guide to them in the narrative.
2) Where are the man and “Cormac
the boy going? Why?
The following questions are 3) “Heʼd pulled away his McCarthy's
intended to help you develop mask in the night...” (5) What The Road, a
a detailed and critical kind of mask is he referring
meditation on
understanding of this text. You to? Suggest reasons why
need to consider how they may travel with masks death, both of
on their faces.
McCarthy crafts the setting,
4) How is the sense of
individuals and
characters and how he uses
language to take us into the constant danger humanity, is by
world of the text. communicated to the reader? turns bleak and
5) What does the father do
Make sure that your answers with the phone in the
exhilarating”.
are thorough: Each answer abandoned gas station?
must be started with an Why? Adam Mars-Jones
effective and detailed topic 6) Think about the literary
sentence (unless otherwise style of the book - there are
indicated). This sentence no quotation marks to 2) “...[T]he blackened shapes
must indicate the main points differentiate speech from the of rock standing up out of the
of the answer you are going to rest of the text, and shoals of ash and
provide. sometimes punctuation is billows of ash blowing
In addition, it must introduce omitted. How does this style downcountry through the
the answer in such a way as reflect the atmosphere and waste.” (14) Why do you think
to make the question obvious themes of the book? McCarthy uses the imagery of
- without simply restating the 7) McCarthy has said in an the ocean to describe the
question. interview that his four-year-old landscape?
• Make specific references to son John practically 3) There are words being
the story for each answer, co-wrote the book: “I suppose used in this novel which are
providing quotations as it is a love story to my son.” new to our language -
evidence. Why do you think he said “scabland” (16),
this? Predict the direction of “bloodcults” (16) are some
the plot. examples. What do
these terms mean? Why is
Section 1 Pages 1-7 Section 2 Pages 8-17 McCarthy combining words in
this way?
Vocabulary:
4) What are the manʼs main
glaucoma, flowstone, pilgrims, Vocabulary:
gully, enshroud, mote, concerns, other than avoiding
flues, translucent, alabaster,
temporal, gryke, transom, other people? Why?
decanting, dregs
shoals, cauterized, autistic,
Questions:
1) This novel is classified as
vestibular, chronicle,
declination, matrix, Section 3 Page 18-33
part of the post-apocalyptic rotunda Vocabulary:
genre. Why? Refer to some of pipeclayed, peril, sconces,
the clues in the first section Questions: keel, frescoes, breakfront,
which indicate that a terrible 1) What does the father mean effigies,
event has occurred. As you when he says, “You forget bogfolk, discalced, firedrake,
read, keep track of those what you want to remember, sectarian, deranged
clues - record the descriptions and you remember what you
of the original event, or the want to forget?” (12) Suggest Questions:
consequences of the event, memories he is trying to keep, 1) What is the significance of
each time the man refers and sights or experiences he dreams in this novel?
wishes he could forget about.
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3. THE ROAD Study Guide 2) Why does the man say that 2) How old do you think the
he doesnʼt trust good boy is? How do you know? Can I ask you
dreams? Provide examples from the something?
3) What do we learn about the text to suggest his age. Yes. Of course you
manʼs past in this section? 3) What do they do at the can.
4) Identify the ʻtreatʼ the boy waterfall? Do you think this is
has in the ruins of the a wise or foolish act? Why?
What would you do if I
supermarket, and why it is 4) Explain the purpose of the died?
significant. fatherʼs flashbacks. Why do If you died I would
5) Why do they go to the they happen so frequently? want to die too.
fatherʼs childhood home? So you could be with
Section 5
6) What frightens the boy
about the house? me?
7) How has the meaning of Page 49-60 Yes. So I could be with
time changed for the boy and you.
the man, because of Vocabulary: Okay.
the disaster? skeins, coagulate,
8) “Can you do it? When the provenance, penitent, 8) How long do you think they
time comes? Can you?” (29) cheroot, obsidian, survived together after the
To what is the father meconium disaster? Or, how long
referring? Why? did the manʼs wife survive
9) “That the boy was all that Questions: before making her final
stood between him and 1) What do the boy and the decision? What are the
death?” (29) What does this man decide to do when they clues in the text?
mean? first see the other man 9) Why is the memory of the
10) Why doesnʼt McCarthy on the road? Why? boyʼs birth as important to the
directly state the protagonistsʼ
2) Why did the boy want to man as his wifeʼs suicide?
location? help the burned man? Why
11) “Not all dying words are
true and this blessing is no
didnʼt the father offer help?
3) Explain the significance of Section 6 Page 60-79
less real for being shorn the wallet, and what the man Vocabulary:
of its ground.” (31) To which does with it. bracken, emaciation,
dying words to you think he is 4) Why does the man allow lacquered, stropping, rachitic,
referring? Who or what is the his son to hope and have lepers, ambush, anointing,
blessing? How do you know? fantasies about life in the evoke, quoits, changeling,
12) Define “godspoke men”. south? commune
(32) 5) No names are given for Questions:
any of the characters. 1) Do you think it is realistic
Section 4 Suggest reasons why
Page 34-38 McCarthy made this choice
that a truck would still be
functional, and that fuel
for the story. would be obtainable for it, as
Vocabulary: 6) Describe the argument that indicated in the book?
basalt, gorge, bluffs, the man had had with his wife 2) “[H]e had a tattoo of a bird
pipsissewa, piedmont, - explain the differences in on his neck done by someone
madacam, mastic their points of view on with an illformed
whether to live or choose to notion of their
Questions die. appearance.” (63) What does
1) “You promised not to do 7) Why didnʼt the woman say this indicate about the survival
that, the boy said.” (34) What good-bye to her son? of animal life since the
do you think his father disaster? Provide at least one
promised not to do? Why? other example from the
Does it matter? Explain. text.
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4. THE ROAD Study Guide 3) Is or was the man a fragile than he would have
doctor? What evidence thought. How much was gone "Mr. McCarthy’s final
suggests this possibility? already? The sacred idiom gesture here [is] an
4) Why do you think the night shorn of its referents and so
is so completely dark in the of its reality.” (89)
embrace of faith in the
environment of the book? What does this mean? face of no hope
5) Explain the significance of whatsoever. Coming
as it does after such
Section 8 Page
the single bullet left in the
revolver. intense moments of
6) What happened to the man 90-105
with the knife, after the father Vocabulary:
despondency, this
and son got away? woad, runic, motifs, faith is even more of a
7) According to the man, what truncheoned, stile, phalanx, leap than it might be
is his job, as a father? forge, in a more forgiving
8) How long had it been since catamites, horde, sedge story."
the father had spoken with Questions:
another human being, 1) When they stop by the New York Times
other than his son? orchard, what does the man
9) List the differences see that he has seen
Section 9
between ʻthe bad guys,ʼ and before? Why is it significant?
ʻthe good guys.ʼ 2) Suggest reasons for the
physical appearance of the Page 105-113
Section 7 armed group of men and
women. What is the purpose
Vocabulary:
port cochere, privet, chattel
Page 79-89 of the red scarves? 1) Explain how McCarthy
Vocabulary: 3) If the bad guys are on the uses suspense and creates
sappers, viaduct, move, why is it not a good foreboding on page 105-106,
embankment, parsible, sign for the man and the with regard to the mansion.
entities, idiom boy? 2) Do you think the detailed
Questions: 4) Why is it important for the descriptions of physical
1) Why do they agree not to father that his son keep setting are necessary for this
kill the dog? talking? What is wrong with story? Why?
2) Explain the meaning of the not talking? Explain what it 3) Why is the boy afraid of
phrase, “[W]eʼre carrying the means about the boyʼs empty houses?
fire.” (83) character. 4) “All these things he saw
3) Do you think the son 5) When the father and son and did not see.” (109) What
actually saw another boy, or have conversations, the boy does this mean?
did he imagine it? Why? frequently ends their 5) Why doesnʼt the man help
4) Why doesnʼt the father go talk by saying “Okay.” Does the people in the cellar?
back to search for the other that mean that he believes
Section 10
boy? what his father tells
5) “Heʼd had this feeling him? What else might it
before, beyond the numbness mean? Page 114-130
and the dull despair. The 6) Does the boy believe that Vocabulary:
world shrinking down about a they will live? How do you formica, cistern, hydraulic,
raw core of parsible entities. know? mendicant, palimpsest,
The names of things slowly 7) Describe the fatherʼs intestate
following those things into strategy after he believes they Questions:
oblivion. Colors. The names might be followed. 1) “Is there such a being
of birds. Things to eat. Finally 8) Why is this important? within you of which you know
the names of things one nothing?” (114) Explain
believed to be true. More the meaning of this quote.
2) How do they escape?
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5. THE ROAD Study Guide 3) What happens at night in 8) “Heʼd been ready to die
the house? and now he wasnt (sic) going "This stands as a
4) How does the man keep to and he had to think radical achievement...
them going when the boy about that...This was not
cannot walk anymore? hiding in the woods. This was
A novel of horrific
5) What was the fatherʼs the last thing from that.” (144) beauty... The
mistake in approaching the What does the man mean by relationship between
house? this? father and son has a
6) Describe what they do after 9) How realistic is this section sweetness that
getting away. Suggest at least - do you think a find like this
one reason for the lack of would really be possible? represents all that's
action. Is this part anti- Why? For what reason does good in a universe
climactic? Why? McCarthy include this where conventional
7) How is the next house solution to their starvation? notions of good and
different? Why is there no
evil have been
Section 12
menace or foreboding with
the abandoned farm? extinguished."
8) Why is the man concerned - pages 145-156
about his coughing? Vocabulary:
9) Explain the boyʼs reaction 9) McCarthy compares the
footlocker, laved, sumputous,
to the truth about the people open hatchway to a grave -
bonded whiskey
in the cellar. what might be his
Questions:
10) “Borrowed time and reasons for doing this? What
1) Why does the father have
borrowed world and borrowed might it - the shelter -
to explain what to do with the
eyes with which to sorrow represent?
butter and the biscuits?
it.” (130) What does this 10) Why donʼt they stay in the
2) What does the boy do
mean? shelter?
before eating? Why? To what
other, traditional act is
Section 11 this similar?
3) Explain the reasons for
Section 13 - pages
pages 131-144 bathing and cutting oneʼs hair 156-167
Vocabulary: - why does it matter in a Vocabulary:
begonia, hasp, serrated, post-apocalyptic world? balustrade, pall, decoy,
corroded, krugerrands 4) When the father reassures rucksack
Questions: his son - “They wont (sic) find Questions:
1) Why does the boy wish that us.” (148) - why does he say 1) What has happened to, or
the other little boy was with this? Is he telling the truth? where are, the crows? What
them? 5) What kind of global does their disappearance
2) How does the father know disaster would require the suggest?
that the town has been empty mass removal and burning of 2) Why do you think they
for a long time? bodies? have not yet seen the sun?
3) Why does the man take the 6) Explain the manʼs reasons 3) What does the boy say he
flower seeds? for only taking one grocery threw away? Why do you
4) According to the father, cart. think he did that?
what do the good guys do? 7) Why does the father tell his 4) When the father cautions
Why does he say this? son, “...sometimes I might his son, “Well, letʼs not get too
5) What do they find buried in forget to be on the smart.” (160), what does he
the yard? lookout?” (151) mean?
6) Why do you think the 8) Explain the meaning of the 5) Why does the boy ask
original owners did not use it? manʼs dream, on page about their long term goals, at
7) List the supplies that they 154-155. this point in the story?
find. Why do you think there is 6) What are the boy and the
no gun? manʼs “new world
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6. THE ROAD Study Guide standards” (161) for 8) Why does McCarthy
cleanliness? continue to avoid specifying "Hypnotic and
7) When the old man asks where the protagonists are?
what the man and the boy 9) “If they saw different
haunting,
are, explain the reason why worlds what they knew was relentlessly dark,
they cannot answer. the same.” (180) Compare this is a novel to
8) For what reason do they how the man sees the world read in late-night
stop for the night with the old with how the boy sees it.
man? What might it be like to solitude. Though the
9) What does the father want never know about the world focus never leaves
the old man to tell him? Why? as it is now - to grow up in the two travelers,
10) Do you think the old man ruins and ash?
is as old as he says? Explain
they carry our
humanity, and we
Section 15 - pages
your response.
11) What is the significance of can't help but feel
the old Man’s name? 180-195 the world hangs in
Vocabulary:
the balance of their
Section 14 - pages
cairn, patterans, sundries,
notions, dessicated, culvert, hopeless quest. A
168-180 fey, predicated, caustic, masterpiece." —Booklist
Vocabulary: quadrants, mattock, bolus
bivouacked, threadbare, Questions:
buddha, secular, gullied, 1) What do the stone cairns 7) The father tries to prevent
middens, kudzu, transit represent? Why do you think the boy from seeing the dead
Questions: they start appearing in the in the highway, but it
1) “People were always south? appears not to bother him. Do
getting ready for tomorrow. I 2) Locate two examples of you think this is true? Why?
didnt (sic) believe in that. foreshadowing in this section. 8) Explain why the man
Tomorrow wasnʼt getting Predict the next watches the boy eat, and why
ready for them. It didnʼt even developments in the plot. the boy says for him to
know they were 3) In the manʼs flashback, he stop.
there.” (168) What is Ely recalls a time when they had 9) How did the father know
talking about? slept in an abandoned they were being followed?
2) Explain what this idiom pharmacy, and that the
Section 16 - pages
means: “Beggars cant (sic) be expensive electronic
choosers.” (169) equipment had not been
3) What does Ely mean when touched on the shelves. Why 195-204
he says, “There is no God do you think it had not been Vocabulary:
and we are his prophets.” ? taken by people? What does corrugate, harrowtrough,
(170) that suggest about the ledgerbook, magnolia, spire,
4) Why doesnʼt the old man catastrophe that ended the provisions, enroute, jerry jug,
tell them his real name? world? slough, serpentine, verdigris
5) The father has already 4) Why did the three men on Questions:
made reference to his son the highway leave the man 1) “Do you think that your
being a god. What does he and the boy alone? fathers are watching? That
mean by that? 5) What do you think the they weigh you in their
6) Why do you think the boy dream of the snakes ledgerbook? Against what?
gives some food to Ely, represents? There is no book and your
though Ely admits he would 6) Suggest reasons for the fathers are dead in the
not do the same? new distance the father ground.” (196) Who says this?
7) What do you think the boy senses between himself and What does it mean? Why
represents? his son. does he say it?
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7. THE ROAD Study Guide 2) What do you think killed the and they will not come
trees? back.” (210) To whom is the "Trenchant and
3) What do you think might man referring? Why do terrifying...fuelled by
happen if the man tried to fire you think that? What could be
the revolver, and a wooden a thing that death cannot a universal
bullet was in the chamber? undo? nightmare...
4) Why did the people leave 3) Predict what will happen illuminated by
their food cooking? after they leave the house.
5) What happens when they 4) Predict what they will find extraordinary
realize what the people had if/when they arrive at their tenderness...
been eating? destination. Do you think McCarthy gives
6) What has the father noticed they will make it? Why? voice to the
about the boyʼs emotional
unspeakable... His
Section 18 - pages
growth from the previous
year? Explain the boyʼs use of language is as
behaviour when presented 213-223 exultant as his
with things left by the road. Vocabulary:
7) Where do you think the disinterred, cholera,
imaginings are
people in the forest got the desolation, careened, slag, hellish...This is art
baby? Why doesnʼt the vigilant, okra, that both frightens
father tell his son what he iodine, tidewrack, isocline, and inspires."
thinks? sepulchre
8) Why does the son Questions: —Janet Maslin, New York Times
apologize for what he had 1) Why does the boy stare at
said about the dead in the the deerhead for a long time?
road?
9) How do you think the father
2) What evidence is there that
the boy is feeling hopeful Section 19
feels, watching his son run in about their journey? - pages 223-240
oversized shoes toward the 3) Describe what they find Vocabulary:
creek? when they arrive at the beach. sheer-rail, transom, davits,
10) Predict what they will find 4) What do they do when they turnbuckles, souwester,
in the next house they arrive? Why? humidor,
explore. 5) Why does the father let the sextant, baize, windfall
son play in the surf? Questions:
1) What does the fatherʼs
Section 17 - pages 6) Why do you think the boy
cries afterward? knowledge of sailboat
205-213 7) Do you think the disaster vocabulary suggest?
Vocabulary: was truly worldwide, or might 2) What useful things does he
palladian, lintel, myraid it have been confined find on the boat?
Questions: to just the one continent? 3) How does the sextant affect
1) “We both have to Why? What evidence is there the man, and why?
say.” (207) Why does the that everything has 4) “It occurred to him that he
father include his son in been destroyed? took this windfall in a fashion
decision making. 8) Explain why the wind off dangerously close to
Does he do it all the time? the water does not smell like matter of fact but still he said
Explain. the sea. what he had said before. That
2) “I think maybe they are 9) Predict what will happen good luck might be no such
watching, he said. They are when the father swims out to thing.” (229-230) Explain what
watching for a thing that the boat. the father means.
even death cannot undo and if 5) Why do you think the father
they do not see it they will turn keeps going, when the easiest
away from us thing would be to give up?
6)The boy forgets the pistol
on the beach, but the father
7

8. THE ROAD Study Guide doesnʼt get angry. Why is Questions:
that? 1) How do they find the thief "Wrenchingly
7) Why was going back for the and their supplies?
pistol a problem? 2) Why do you think the thief elegiac... Single
8) How does the father get was an outcast? Suggest plot twists chill the
them back to camp? reasons why his fingers
9) “The slow surf crawled and had been cut away.
blood."
seethed in the dark and he 3) Why do you think the thief —The Economist
thought about his life responds to the boy by
but there was no life to think surrendering?
about and after a while he 4) Explain the manʼs 3) Why does the man say that
walked back.” (237) punishment of the thief. Do his son reminds him of an
What does this mean? What you think he did the right orphan waiting for a
is the man realizing here? thing? bus?
10) Of what use might the 5) How does the boy feel 4) “Look around you, he said.
flarepistol be? about his fatherʼs action? There is no prophet in the
6) “Youʼre not the one who earthʼs long chronicle
Section 20- pages has to worry about whoʼs not honoured here
everything...[The boy] looked today. Whatever form you
240-253 up, his wet and grimy face. spoke of you were
Vocabulary: Yes I am, he said. I am the right.” (277) What is the father
tendrils, magnesium, one.” (259) What does talking about?
conjuring, travois, pruned, he mean by this? 5) Why canʼt the father kill his
Questions: 7) Where do you think the son?
1) Was it a good idea for the thief went? 6) What is the ʻgoodnessʼ to
man to shoot the flare? Why? 8) Why do think the man with which the father refers?
2) What is the father afraid of the bow tried to kill them? 7) How long does the boy stay
when the boy is sick? 9) Why doesnʼt the boy want with his father? Why?
3) “He walked out on the to hear his fatherʼs stories 8) What does the boy do
beach to the edge of the light anymore? when he sees someone
and stood with his 10) Predict what will happen coming? Why?
clenched fists on top of his when they leave the town. 9) Why does the man in the
skull and fell to his knees parka pause before answering
sobbing with rage.” (250)
Explain the emotions the man Section 21 - pages the boyʼs question, about
whether he is a good guy?
is feeling, and the reasons 270-end 10) How long do you think he
why. Vocabulary: was following or watching the
4) Predict what will happen lee, askew, armatures, boy and the man?
when they catch up to the sloughed, incinerate, crozzled 11) Why does the man in the
thief / thieves. ensepulchred, tabernacle, parka say that the boy needs
hagmoss, counterspectacle, to keep out of the road?
Section 21- pages hydroptic, hydrangeas, 12) Do you think the man in
isthmus, prophet, loess, the parka is a good guy?
253-270 bandolier, skirmishes, stoven, Why?
Vocabulary: wimpled, torsional, ermiculate 13) Why is the woman glad to
communes, sheaves, Questions: see the boy?
cognate, impoderable, 1) What does the father say is 14) What does the woman
dolmen, oracles, the bravest thing he ever did? represent?
moldering, sloe, lampblack, Why? 15) What do the brook trout
entabled, rickets, congealing, 2) How has the manʼs represent?
bollards, gantry cane, suture perspective about the boy Source: www.tinyurl.com/
changed? Why? vwenglish
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