Literature Analysis #1

Summary 

Theme

I think the theme of this story is fighting for someone you love. In the story it tells us that the fathers wife kills herself because she doesn't want to run and put up with her child but the father stays. He stays and walks this road with his son protecting him with his life. The father always tells his son that they will survive even though the son says there going to die. The father believes its his job from god to keep his son alive and he does. He fights for the boy and gives him all that he can. The father truly loved him and gave all he had to protect him.

Why I Chose This Book

     I chose this book because it looked interesting and it sounded interesting. Honestly, the main reason it got my attention was because it looked short and had big words on each page. I know this sounds lazy but I'm not a big fan of reading but in the end it turned out to be an interesting but very difficult book; it was not what i expected.

Connections

     I think in my opinion it can connect to someone's life. Meaning your life would be the road, the man would be you, and the boy is someone or something in your life you cherish. The connection I mad with it is my life in school. My life has been very difficult with all the school work I have and a lot of the times i just want to give up but I know I can't because my education is what I'm fighting for. Even though I fall and I get pushed to the limit and sometimes i just want to burn all my school stuff and quit but i  know in order for me to get what i want I have to keep on walking.

Tone

     McCarthy’s tone is very visual, Gothic and depressive in the imagery of its extremely dark world.

Literary Elements

Metaphor:

      He mistrusted all of that. He said the right dreams for a man in peril were dreams of peril and all else was the call of languor and of death.

Hyperbole:

       He said: If he is not the word of God, God never spoke.

Simile:

       He'd carried his billfold about till it wore a corner shaped hole in his trousers. Then one      day he sat by the roadside and took it out and went through the contents. Some money, credit cards. His driver's license. A picture of his wife. He spread everything out on the blacktop. Like gaming cards.

Personification:

       They passed through towns that warned people away with messages scrawled on the billboards.           

Symbolism:

       "You can't. You have to carry the fire." "I don't know how to." "Yes you do." "Is it real? The fire?" "Yes it is." "Where is it? I don't know where it is." "Yes you do. It's inside you.   It was always there. I can see it."

Metaphor/Simile:

        The nights were blinding cold and casket black and the long reach of the morning had a   terrible silence to it. Like a dawn before battle. The boy's candle colored skin was all but translucent. With his great staring eyes he'd the look of an alien.

Imagery:

        The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe.

Personification:

        Yes it is. When we're all gone at last then there'll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He'll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. He'll say: Where did everybody go? And that's how it will be. What's wrong with that? 

Simile:

        They set out through the dark woods. There was a moon somewhere beyond the ashen overcast and they could just make out the trees. The staggered on like drunks. 

Metaphor:

         No list of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes. "So," he whispered to the sleeping boy, "I have you." 

Direct/Indirect Characterization

Direct:

“(The Boy) Can I ask you something?
(The Man) Yes. Of course you can.
(The Boy) What would you do if I died?
(The Man) If you died I would want to die too.
(The Boy) So you could be with me?
(The Man) Yes. So I could be with you.
(The Boy) Okay.” (pg. 11)

Indirect

"The boy squatted and put a hand on his shoulder. He's scared, Papa. The man is scared.
He looked up the road and down. If this is an ambush he goes first, he said.
He's just scared, Papa.
Tell him we wont hurt him.
The old man shook his head from side to side, his fingers laced in his filthy hair. The boy looked up at his father.
Maybe he thinks we're not real.
What does he think we are?
I dont know.
We cant stay here. We have to go.
He's scared, Papa.
I dont think you should touch him.
Maybe we should give him something to eat.
He stood there looking off down the road. Damn, he whispered. He looked down at the old man. Perhaps he'd turn into a god and they to trees. All right, he said. page 162-163

Static/Dynamic/Flat/Round

The protagonist was pretty much a round character. He changed several times through out the book he went from being a loving father to a man who would kill someone to a an that doesn't trust anyone to a man who doesn't care about anyone besides his son but then again he is kind of a flat character because even though he changed in all these ways over all he was always loving and caring to his son.

Feelings After Reading

     After reading this book I feel like I know the father pretty well because I can kind of relate to him. Threw out the book his job was to make sure his son was safe and survived. He loved his son so much that he would kill anybody that would try and hurt him even if ment getting himself killed. I relate to him and see where he is coming from because I feel the same way and would do the same things for my girlfriend. Except for the road and all the troubles they faced would just be the struggles in my world that me and her face being in a relationship. So I feel how papa does where he would do anything to protect the one he loves.

Enduring Memory

    An importance i'm going to take away from this book is that during life there is going to be challenges there are going to be situations where it seems like you wont survive or be able to pull your self out but in the end in life you have to keep on trying in this book i seen the road as the road of my life I seen the papa as my self and his son as someone I love deeply and all the obstacles that we overcome are all the challenges we face in life. So in the end what i'm taking away from this book is that in the end even though things may not turned out as planned always fight and move forward.