Here is your exam topic:
In Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel
The Road, the protagonists, a man and his son, are navigating 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” (p. 181). The man and the boy consider themselves the “good guys” in this dark world, which they tend to see as seeking survival without harming others. The father repeatedly assures his son that he is “carrying the fire” and says of his son: “If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (p. 5). The father’s strong belief in and rhetoric around his son’s goodness suggests that he knows that the boy is an answer to the current chaotic state of the world—although, if that answer brings any sort of redemption is for the reader to decide.
The theme of fate is often seen throughout works of classic, modern, and contemporary literature. Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a character’s control, as determined by an unseen force. Fate is something that people have no control over, both in real life and in works of literature. In fiction, we often see characters in situations that may, at first, seem like lucky (or sometimes unlucky) coincidence, but we later realize these events had to happen in order for that character to fulfill their ultimate destiny.
In
The Road, the boy and his father are making a physical journey to the ocean, a trip that seems hopeless due to their lack of food, water, and warmth. Just as the father reasons there could “not [be] so many more” than ten days until their deaths (p. 133), the duo finds hope. While searching a long-abandoned house for any scrap of useful material or food, the man stumbles upon and unburies an underground door that is hidden by grass and ash. Through this door, they discover a bunker which houses “crate upon crate of canned goods…hundred of gallons of water…and blankets” (p. 138). In a world where, to survive, mankind has resorted to cannibalism, an underground shelter filled with an excess of food, water, and warmth, is not just a lucky find, it is a nearly impossible one.
As the novel nears its end, the dying father tells the boy, “You have to carry the fire…It’s inside you. It was always there” (p. 278-9). If his belief that the boy is, in fact, the “word of God”(p. 5) who has come to offer hope in a hopeless world, is correct, what role does finding of the bunker and avoiding starvation play in the novel? Do you believe the world is doomed no matter what, so finding the supplies was just a coincidence that prolonged their suffering? If it is mere coincidence, what is the purpose of their journey?
Or do you see it as fate that they found the bunker and were able to complete their trip to the ocean? If it is fate, does that mean that the boy’s survival offers hope to such a bleak world?
In 200-300 words (if this seems long to you, know that this document contains 615 words), answer the questions above.
Remember this is your interpretation of the novel—there is no wrong answer if you justify your opinions with textual evidence.
Type your answer, use complete and grammatically correct sentences, double space your document, and cite the book’s page number when referencing specific passages (just like I have in the text above).
Submit your assignment as a .docx or .pdf file to the link in the Week 10 folder on Blackboard.
