Discussion Topic
The narrative structure and its deviation from traditional novel form in Cormac McCarthy's The Road
Summary:
The narrative structure of Cormac McCarthy's The Road deviates from traditional novel form by employing a sparse, fragmented style that mirrors the bleak, post-apocalyptic setting. The lack of chapters, minimal punctuation, and frequent shifts in perspective contribute to a sense of disorientation, reflecting the characters' struggle for survival. This unconventional approach enhances the novel's themes of desolation and resilience.
Why doesn't The Road by Cormac McCarthy have a typical beginning, middle, and end structure?
The novel The Road begins in medias res, which is a Latin phrase for "in the middle of things." The reader is thrown into the story much like the characters who fight for survival. A traditional exposition and rising action are not the hallmarks of horror or science fiction, which are organized around suspense and wonder. McCarthy places the reader in the middle of the action, walking on the road with the man and boy, staring at the ghastly images along the way. The climax has already happened (the apocalypse), and now we journey where none have gone before, as if into hell.
McCormac creates suspense by giving the man a gun with two bullets (there's two of them), and intermingling the horrific flashbacks of the mother's suicide along the way. Not only are there marauders and cannibals that the man must fight, but we wonder if he...
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will end his son's life the way his wife wanted him to. In this way, the turn of each page could be a potential climax or resolution.
McCormac's novel is episodic in structure. It is series of episodes, vignettes, with no chapter titles or markers, only double-space breaks, so that the novel is organized very much like an unmarked journey, much like The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, and Catcher in the Rye. All these stories involved lonely characters who journey to unknown destinations, who have been alienated by the world around them, who battle antagonists and nature along the way.
The ending has elements of a Deux ex Machina, but if you go back and look for clues, you will find out that the man with the shotgun (and family) have indeed been following them for some time. And still, McCarthy leaves the novel open-ended, as the boy's future still looks bleak.
What is unique about the narrative structure in Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"?
The definition of narrative structure varies a little bit from source to source, so the following definition should be treated as a working definition. Narrative structure is the framework that encompasses the way a narrative is presented to a reader. Plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, etc.) is often a key component of narrative structure. Setting is also usually a main component of narrative structure. I would lean toward analyzing and discussing the setting of The Road as being special for this story. McCarthy's novel is not the first novel with a post-apocalyptic setting; however, this novel takes readers to a setting in which all forms of humanity, society, and civilization have completely broken down. Cannibalism and cooking babies over fires is a real thing in this book's world. The notion of people banding together to form little enclaves of hope and help is not a reality either. Readers are never treated to the protagonists finding a small group of survivors that have banded together to form some kind of decent society. That's completely gone from McCarthy's book. What readers are dropped into the middle of is a world so far gone that it practically takes your breath away. The sense of hopelessness in this world is palpable. McCarthy did an amazing job of creating this very dark setting in order to explore various themes.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road begins in medias res ("in the middle of things") but after the apocalypse ("series of low concussions"). The novel borrows narrative elements from science fiction, travelogue, horror, and bildungsroman (novel of education). The narrative structure is, more or less, a walking Socratic seminar--a series of questions (by the son) and answers (by the father). Irony is achieved in the seriousness of the son's wanting to know that they're "the good guys" and the father's patient reassurance that they are. The father must not only protect the boy's life, but--more importantly--his faith and innocence.
Action is determined by the father's two bullets. He must decide whether to shoot a cannibal or kill himself and his son to avoid being eaten. Worse, he has taught the boy to use the gun on himself, an unthinkable act. Death is inevitable for the father, we know, so we are desperately vested in the safety of the son's life. He is like Adam, Jesus, and the Holy Grail: the world's faith and future generations depend on his survival.
Even though the narration is told in third person, it is clearly from the father's point of view. We know about his bad dreams, and he has flashbacks about his wife. The time is present day or future, hard to tell. The father says he hasn't kept a calendar in years. We do know that the boy was born into the apocalypse--he has no memories before it. We also know that his mother abandoned them by committing suicide. And we know that the father will likely die from inhaling the foul air from the fallout. So, the father must help the son find a sense of hope and faith in a nuclear winter filled with cannibals.
About half-way through the novel, McCarthy foreshadows his ending when the boy thinks he sees another boy. In the end, after the father dies and boy is rescued by the man with the shotgun, we realize that this other family has been following the father and son the entire novel.
The turning point of the novel, however, is the son's decision to go back onto the road. The father, had he been alive would not have done this, and he had taught the boy to hide at all costs. The son's act of faith in confronting the man with the shotgun leads to his and humanity's salvation--although, technically, the ending is open-ended and salvation is implicit.