Discussion Topic
Significant Quotes from The Road that Develop Character, Create Conflict, and Use Literary Devices
Summary:
Significant quotes from The Road that develop character, create conflict, and use literary devices include: “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget,” highlighting the protagonist's inner turmoil, and “If I were God, I would have made the world just so and no different,” showcasing existential conflict and the use of irony.
Which quote from the end of The Road develops character, creates conflict, and uses a literary device?
Soon after his father dies, the boy asks a man he has recently met, “Are you carrying the fire?” This question, which the strange man does not immediately understand, builds on one of The Road's most important themes: the importance for human beings to remain optimistic. As long as people have hope and faith that things will improve, they will be able to carry on despite the hardships. The boy remembered this phrase because his father impressed its importance on him soon before he died. The boy is not literally carrying a fire. The phrase is a metaphor, a literary device that compares two unlike things for effect.
Near the end of The Road , when the man is very ill, he has a meaningful conversation with his frightened son. Encouraging the boy to believe that he will have the strength to continue after his father dies, the...
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man reminds his son that he has an inner, positive motivation within himself. The father tells him, “You’re carrying the fire.”
The father and son had been cautiously avoiding a strange man and woman they had recently encountered. Once he realizes that his father has passed, the boy walks out to the road and meets this man again. He tells the stranger that his father has died, and he does not know what to do. His question about the fire goes along with another about whether the man is a good guy, meaning a trustworthy person.
[Boy] How do I know you’re one of the good guys?
[Stranger] You don’t. You’ll have to take a shot.
[Boy] Are you carrying the fire?
[Stranger] Am I what?
[Boy] Carrying the fire.
Although the stranger is confused at first, he grasps the meaning. By telling the boy that he must take the risk of trusting him, the stranger is expressing his hope and faith that the boy will be able to trust him and the woman.
What are three significant quotes from The Road that develop character or create conflict?
For the purpose of this answer, I'm going to assume that "the end of the novel" are sequences that occurs after the man has died, and the boy is left to fend for himself.
The final conversation between the man and the boy is a heartbreaking conversation. We know the man is dying, and the boy is smart enough to realize that his dad is in bad shape. Presumably, they fall asleep together with the boy grasping his father. This is how he sleeps the entire night, and his father dies during that time.
He slept close to his father that night and held him but when he woke in the morning his father was cold and stiff.
The quote shows that there is a deep commitment between the two characters, and it shows that the boy is clearly not ready to be on his own without his father. The quote also echoes the book's opening line which says that the man would reach out whenever he woke up to check on his son. Now the boy is the one checking on his father by feel. Unfortunately, the man is dead. The boy sits there for quite some time and weeps. He eventually leaves but then comes back.
When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again.
The quote shows that the boy feels truly lost without his father and repeats his father's name, almost as if begging him to come back to life. The depth of the son's commitment to his father and sorrow over his father's death is shown in the very next sentence.
He stayed three days and then he walked out to the road and he looked down the road and he looked back the way they had come.
The boy stayed by his dead father for three days. The boy and his father were surrounded by death, so it isn't a question of whether or not the boy understands what is happening. He does, but he is so completely lost without his father that the only thing worth doing is staying by his side day after day.