(A/N#2: So my teacher had already checked this post so I can finally change the title now. WHOOP!! Feels unnatural when my titles are short...and lacking in voice.)
I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy since I needed a book to blog about, seeing that I already finished all the other ones from the library. I really like it. It's a novel that focuses on a father who is trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world while taking care of his son.
From the father's and the boy's words, I'm assuming that the boy was born after the disaster. "He withdrew his hand slowly and sat looking at a Coca Cola. What is it, Papa? It's a treat. For you. What is it? Here. Sit down." (McCarthy 23). Here, the reader can tell the boy had never had a soft drink before. Of any kind. He doesn't even know what a coke is. He makes obvious remarks like it's bubbly, it's really good, and he knows that he won't probably taste it ever again.
We know the father is familiar with the drink because not only did he give it to the boy to have but he also knew what the vending machines were and what they held in them.
And when he's talking about going south, he tells the boy that they have to follow the state lines. "These are our roads, the black lines on the map. The state roads.
Why are they the state roads?
Because they used to belong to the states. What used to be called the states.
But there's not any more states?
No.
What happened to them?
I don't know exactly. That's a good question." (McCarthy 42-43). This also supports my theory because the boy isn't aware of what states are. He now knows there are states line, but the states themselves doesn't mean anything to him.
On another note, the boy's mother. I think she killed herself. "I am begging you. I'll do anything.
Such as what? I should have done it along time ago. When there were three bullets in the gun instead of two. I was stupid... I thought about not even telling you. That would probably have been the best. You have two bullets and then what? You can't protect us. You say you would die for us but what good is that? I'd take him with me if it weren't for you. You know I would. It's the right thing to do." (McCarthy 56).
She couldn't live in this world anymore. How can she? The reader knows that it's hard enough for the father and his boy to survive in the barren world, and that's just with two of them.
At first, when it was said that they have two bullets, I had thought that if it all goes bad, really bad, the father would have to kill his son, and then himself.
But how can he do that? But how can he?
The boy's mother loved him so much, she was willing to kill him.
The boy's father loves him so much, he keeps him living.
And if the boy were to die, he would die too. He would die so he can be with his son.
I was wrong though. No, instead of him killing the boy, he had taught the boy how to shoot the pistol. He taught the boy the theory behind it. So the boy would die first. He would die first so he wouldn't have to die alone. So he wouldn't have to go through the pain of his father leaving him.
This book hurts. A whole freaking lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment