The Road Group at eNotes

The Lord of Flies is a great one, as are Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein,...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:14:32 PST

The Lord of Flies is a great one, as are Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, and The Red Badge of Courage. I've also always loved the story "Rikki Tiki Tavi" which has a very strong theme of survival. Night and The Poisonwood Bible are two others where survival is a frontrunning theme. There is a series entitled Among the Hidden where it is illegal to have more than a certain number of children. The ones born outside that number have to...

“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler is an excellent read. ...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:56:41 PST

“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler is an excellent read. This book is about a dystopian future United States. The cities are walled off and mankind is plagued with disease and mental instability. Lauren Olamina is an 18-year-old teen with the abilities to feel the pain of others. She chooses to leave her home and this is a story of her journey. “A Gift Upon the Shore” is another good novel. It was written in 1990 by M. K...

I can think of several "lone person survives awful odds" stories. One...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:27:26 PST

I can think of several "lone person survives awful odds" stories. One book that comes to mind is "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. It is about a little boy from India, whose family is travelling to Canada on a boat. His family owns a zoo, so there are animals on the boat. The boat sinks, and Pi ends up on a lifeboat and has to survive; the twist is that there is a Bengal tiger on the lifeboat with him. He survives, at sea, with the tiger,...

What are other books with the theme of survival running through them?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:28:07 PST

What are other books with the theme of survival running through them?

When you are looking to find a theme of a piece of literature, keep in...

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:53:57 PST

When you are looking to find a theme of a piece of literature, keep in mind that themes can ususally be stated in one word, and that word describes something pretty major that is evident in the writing. And, themes aren't necessarily etched in stone; there are so many different possibilities for themes in every piece of writing. If you want to find the themes that you feel your teacher is asking for, think about what he/she has discussed...

List all of the themes found in "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:34:00 PST

List all of the themes found in "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

The Road is so full of heartbreaking images, the father and son have...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:09:54 PST

The Road is so full of heartbreaking images, the father and son have nothing but each other and the few shared terms that help the son understand the dystopian nightmare in which they live. For example, the father refers to them as the good guys, as opposed to most of the other people on the road who are bad guys. He also tries to keep his memories of the past to himself fearing that his son would not understand the stories because he has...

And, there are far too many people in this world, who only live for...

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 20:16:22 PST

And, there are far too many people in this world, who only live for destruction, from world leaders toterrorists. It's impossiblele to get rid of them all.

Absolutely. In the aftermath of similar events, there would be complete...

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 20:14:31 PST

Absolutely. In the aftermath of similar events, there would be complete chaos and anarchy, and a fight to survive. With so little food, it would almost seem to reason that the fewer people there are, the more food for everyone else.

Post #2 is on a totally different subject! I'd like to believe that...

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:02:26 PST

Post #2 is on a totally different subject! I'd like to believe that faced with the circumstances the novel depicts people would behave more nobly, like the man and his son. However, most likely people would become just as primitive and brutal as those in the book. The scene in which the man finds opens the trapdoor and discovers what is being kept in the cellar is horrific. But who knows what horrifying things we'll do when we're starving, and...

Do you think people would likely behave as they do in the novel, under...

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 22:17:01 PST

McCarthy envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes"(page 234).

How difficult or easy is it to imagine McCarthy's nightmare vision actually happening and does it now seem that human civilisation is headed toward such an end?

In my opinion, the fire represents goodness, hope, humanity, and the...

Sat, 6 Jun 2009 18:51:15 PST

In my opinion, the fire represents goodness, hope, humanity, and the will to survive without degenerating into what other people around them have become. "We carry the fire," symbolizes the small flame of decency and civilization that has otherwise been wiped off of the face of the earth. Someone has to carry that fire, that memory of what life was before, and all of the good things that life contained, and of all of the reasons for...

In "The Road" what is this fire, and why is it so crucial that they not...

Sat, 6 Jun 2009 17:48:58 PST

In "The Road" what is this fire, and why is it so crucial that they not let it die?

The many, many descriptions of the scorched earth, distant sun, ashen...

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 18:48:01 PST

The many, many descriptions of the scorched earth, distant sun, ashen drifts, cold weather, and endless rain all serve to paint a very bleak and hopeless existence, an existence that perhaps, is symbolic of life without the existence of good people who feel that they have communication with God. It emphasizes the world as it might be if humanity gets to the point where they are willing to nuke each other into oblivion. For the world to get...

In "The Road" what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a...

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:39:57 PST

In "The Road" what might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash?

The world seems so real because it is familiar to us. The narrator and...

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 09:11:27 PST

The world seems so real because it is familiar to us. The narrator and his son walk on a road, they encounter houses, towns, cars, semi-trucks, and stores with escalators and departments. That is our world today. We recognize it; there isn't anything there that we don't know. Also, McCarthy chooses to have a narrator that has lived in both worlds; the world before the blasts, and the world after the blasts. This helps to make the...

How is McCarthy able to make the postapocalyptic world of "The Road"...

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 22:21:49 PST

How is McCarthy able to make the postapocalyptic world of "The Road" seem so real and utterly terrifing?

The reasons that you stated above in your question partially answer the...

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:07:33 PST

The reasons that you stated above in your question partially answer the question itself; McCarthy has a very unique feel to his writing, and he does jump in and out of dreaming and reality within a passage. Poetry tends to do that much more than narrative prose. One of the main purposes of narratives is to tell story; the emphasis is on plot. Poetry is more about mood and feeling, and McCarthy's storytelling has a definite mood to it, so...

How is the writing in "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy in some ways more...

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 18:27:38 PST

How is the writing in "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy in some ways more like poetry than narrative prose?

In "The Road" the author does not provide names for his characters...

Sat, 30 May 2009 15:06:37 PST

In "The Road" the author does not provide names for his characters because it makes the story's theme of the violent indifference that has stricken the world more intense, it conveys how this devastation has stripped us of our individuality, now those who have survived wander in a rugged, raw new wilderness, fighting to stay alive. The bleakness, coldness and indifference that is conveyed through the impersonal nature in this story helps to...