Week 5 was both creepy, but also left you with a happier sense. The beginning was the creepier part. While the father and son were staying in the shed, the boy has a bad dream but doesn’t tell the father what it’s about. All he says is that in the dream he was crying but the father didn’t wake up. This proves that the boy is even more fearful of the future than what he puts across. He has fears that something horrible will happen to his father, and that he will be left to journey alone into the unknown. He begins to dwell on his dreams too much so his father tells him this, “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will you and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you can’t give up. I won’t let you.” (Page 189) I think the father is using the advice given to him by Ely for living in the moment, not the past, the future, or what you wish the world could be, because that is not going to happen. This brings the boy back to reality.
While they continue on their journey to the coast and they walk through all the dead bodies that are just frozen in time that must be so frightening! This is probably going to be a really bad analogy, but it would almost be like the characters on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, without the moving, just staying however they were forever more.
Finally, they make it to the coast, but they don’t have the happy ending that I think they expected to have when they got there. The coast was the same as everywhere else they had traveled to. When the father swims out to the boat, he sees that it is named “Pajaro de Esperanza.” This means the bird of hope. Did anyone notice that? My feeling is that seeing this abandoned boat means the end of all hope and that after they leave the coast everything will change drastically. Lastly I just have to state for the record that I think the father and son are Jewish. It never is said, and they do not talk ever about religion, but when they first get to the beach, the boy asks to swim in the ocean. The father says “You’ll freeze your tokus off” (Page 217) and that’s Yiddish which a lot of Jews speak. It reminded me of my grandpa, Zeezee, because he always speaks Yiddish!
I agree with Hillary that week 5 in "The Road" was creepy but left you more satisfied at the end. A lot of different events happened in this section. They experienced many dead bodies and heads dried up and decaying. Especially through the town the firestorm went through leaving all the bodies frozen in time.
One of the events I found weird was when they encountered the three men in front of the truck. I understand that the man had his gun but why didn't the three men go after him?
I think the boy is getting more matured and knowledgeable as the story goes on. He wants to protect his dad just like his dad protects him. An example of the boys maturity in the story is when they are walking through the town where the firestorm occurred and the man told the boy he didn't want him to look and the boy answered, "They'll still be there." And when the man looked at the boy he noticed he looked untroubled and it did not scare him. Since the boy has already experienced so much and so many dead bodies, this was no different.
When they finally reached the coast, it was kind of a disappointment because this is where their journey ended but there was nothing here, no good people and no shelter. Now that I know what the saying on the side of the boat “Pajaro de Esperanza” means (thanks to Hillary), I believe that this represents that their is hope in finding what they came to the coast for.
Okay, for me week five was so weird. But it left you feeling a sense of happiness just like Hillary said. The creepy parts were when the boy had that dream in the shed about his father dieing. I don’t know about you but if I had a dream like that I would freak out! But, I think the boy is becoming more knowledgeable of life and death throughout the story. He does what he can to protect his father just like his father protected him for so many years, because he is not ready to be left alone into the unknown world.
Another fearful part was when they walk through the land of the dead! (Basically). This is what they walked for. They walked the road for years to get the coast (which is covered) with lifeless bodies. When they arrive to their distention is as if all hope is lost because it is nothing they imagined. It is horrible and lifeless. Like Hillary said “My feeling is that seeing this abandoned boat means the end of all hope and that after they leave the coast everything will change drastically.” I truly agree with Hillary because all his hopes are gone. And the whole Jewish analogy can be true, but Germans, Russians, Romans and more use the word “Tokus”. All it means is butt.
To top it all off I don’t really like the fact that when they got there, it was as dead as the road. I really wanted a happy ending. Was the author like truly depressed as he was writing this??
The main and first thing I noticed in the beginning of this is the influence that the boy has on his father. The moment the boy suggests that they hide because they think someone is following them, the father agrees immediately and does not protest at all. As you continue through this section, the father recognizes his boys intelligence and growing of age. When he sees the boys burning snakes, tells the boy they are about his age, yet he refers to them as men. When they find the infant cooking over fire it symbolizes an awful event which could take away the boys innocence and calmness. Something to keep in mind is that the boy and the dad have gone through so many horrible and gruesome things; it is probably becoming normal to them now. I know when I read about the infant cooking over the fire; it freaked me out in a different way than I think it freaked the boy and father out. The boy becomes much more child like after this incident and he is a much more scared version of himself. In the later pages, they come to the coast. The boy asks if he can go for a swim and the father replies that the water is freezing. The boy still goes into the water and I think the reason is that he wants his fathers’ attention. He also wants his father to treat him like he is a young boy again. The father even says that he does not want to go into the water to get him, but the boy does not reply. This could suggest that he really does want the father to come in a get him. His new reliance on his father may foreshadow something bad having to do with the boy.
I feel a strange connection with the boy wanting his fathers love and attention. There are times when I will unknowingly act helpless just so that my mom will sit by my side and help me through what I am doing. I think most teenagers go through a part of their life where they feel they do not need their parents much anymore, but then they realize that there is no way they could survive without them there.
Alright...Well as i have read more in to the novel i have begun to notice more imperative things. To begin, the boys is starting to show a role of leardership and determination to live. For example the part where the boy tells the father that they think someone is following them shows how he want him and his dad to not only keep living but stay safe and out of the open. i think the father is getting to the part where he figures i is better to trust the boy and listen to him because maybe he is right. Also, i think when the dad tells the boy not to swim and he disobeys him i think it forshawdows danger because it could happen in more a future situation while making their journey down south. Now, i have also come to a conclusion that i think the coast is a symbol of survival. not only for food sources but in general if the road that they are walking on ever ends they at least can build a log raft and float to shore.
Cormac McCarthy, throughout his novel displays imagery that helps me understand what is going on half the time. not only is his vocabulary hard enough to understand but his style of writing helps me figure out and comprehend what is happening and going on in the book.
In my opinion the next 45 pages of "The Road" were both slightly disturbing and relieving. In my opinion the part where they walk through all the dead bodies was extremely shuddersome because there was nothing that the father could do to keep his son from seeing it. The other extremely unpleasant section of week 5 was when they found the infant cooking over the fire. Its things like these that make you wonder what McCartney was thinking at the moments he wrote those parts. I mean that part was utterly disgusting to me.
I think that the dream the little boy has when they are still in the shed is an indication that he is worried that something is going to happen to his father, and that he will then have no choice but to move on alone.
When they make it to the coast i think that it is not what they expected it to be. In a way i think that the little boy was hoping that the coast was going to be a much happier place then traveling, i think that he was expecting the water to be nice and blue, and all his hopes and expectations were let down when they got there. I know that it was definetley relieving to reach the coast for them, but also a let down to see what the coast had become.
In this week reading of the road was very odd. To begin, did they finally make it to the coast or some sort of lake that was huge? Second, why did they stay at the house longer than any other and how was there nobody else around. I mean are the main characters the only two people to survive besides the regime that they are hiding from? This story keeps on confusing me I mean it’s a great book on how people struggle to survive in the end of the world. Also, wasn’t the coast supposed to be the end of the story or is there more to this story than just making it to the coast.
The father changes his character throughout this section of the book by having hope. He brings hope to himself, unusual for him because he usually only brings hope to his son, but keeps his soul quiet, sad, and vigilant. I was expecting the two to find more people once they found the coast, but all they found was a gray, dull ocean. The boy completely changes his mood by running around the beach, screaming and yelling, then going into the water and enjoying himself in the cold, cold ocean. This truly expresses an immediate change in the boy's attitude.
Also, I must disagree with Tal. For me, this part of the book brings a short lived excitement to the reader with the boy running around the beach, but then is quickly diminished by the thousands of dead fish parts along the beach and the dried up beach plants and ashes.
Also, I agree with Julie you can see that the father truly treats his son as an equal (although with vigilance) and they begin to make decisions as a 2-man team.
I think the boy is growing up more and more, and for that reason, has less trust in his father. In the boy’s nightmare, he dreams that he is crying, but his father cannot hear him. I think that symbolizes that the boy thinks that even with tears, his father might not rescue him.
After all that traveling to the coast, it was a huge let down. However, I am anxious to find out where they will make camp, because the beach gets very cold at night. An addition, I thought the boat was very symbolic. It is empty, although it is not ransacked. It is implied that the ocean washed everything away. Nature took everything from the deck of the boat, not man. Nature made the ashes. Nature put the man and the boy in this situation. And Pajaro de Esperanza, the bird of hope (thank you Hillary). The man and the boy hoped that they could escape the situation by reaching the coast; almost fly away from it, like a bird.
But, as for the rest of their journey, I have no predictions. They have reached their destination without satisfaction. Where are they going to go?
I think that alot of maturing has happened in this section of "The Road". The boy has stepped it up quite a bit and has been given much more responsibility. On the other hand, the man has been deteriorating both physically and mentally. His health seems to be getting worse and worse, and he seems to have lost faith. Also, there were several scenes that convey an extreme sense of emotion- the infant scene, the final arrival at the coast, and the dreams. The disturbing scenes were still disturbing, but i think the reader has become accustomed to that by now. However the final arrival at the coast brought a new feeling that has not yet been experienced in the book so far.
This section of the book was very interesting because it seemed as if the man and the boy switched places. The boy begins to take on a leadership position between the two of them and you begin to see hope forming within the man.
They definitely encountered a lot in this section of the book, and I think it left them with more motivation to survive. Once they reach the coast all the feelings of hope and motivation leave them because they realize that this is what they had worked so hard to reach.
In this part of the book.... the boy seemed to mature a bit and take on more responsibilities where as the man is almost the opposite. The man's health has greatly decreased. I thought it was very interesting. As Neda said, the man and boy switch positions in the sense of leadership. The man can no longer hold his own so in turn, the boy had to step up to plate, so to speak. Their journey must have been frightening but they finally made it to the coast. Once, they made it the reader and the characters in my opinion were very disappointed in the final outcome. There was nothing special at this coast, however on the side of an abandoned boat the words read "Pajaro de Esperanza" ....of hope, there still may be hope! As many said, that is a pretty satisfying ending.
I think the boys relationship with his father has grown to be more dependent. I think the dream the boy had where his father doesn’t wake up to him crying worries him. I feel the boy knows that one day his father won’t be there and it frightens him. Also when the boy is talking to his father his father says the boy doesn’t believe him, but the boy replies, “Yes I do. I have to.” I think the boy feels this way because he has nobody else’s opinion to listen to. I thought it was really creepy when they were walking across the dead bodies melted into the road, and like Hillary I thought of Pirates of the Caribbean!
I liked this chapter a lot more than the others. You see more emotion from the father and son and it gives you a feeling of sentiment and that the story will get better. They pass dead bodies and 3 men with a truck. I’m utterly confused with this entire story because its not engaging to me. I cant sit and read a drab story with things getting worse and worse. And to top it all off when they get to the coast there is nothing there. No friendly people, any food, shelter, or guarantee of safety at all. It was an utter waste of time for the father and son, but I guess the walking to the coast gave them hope and made them hold on.
i thought this book maybe sometimes boring and sometimes interesting. In pages 181-225 or week 5, the boy proves himself that he must get over his own fears. He learns a little from his father, but he is also experiencing himself to be a young man. Well, i don't have a great mind on week 5, but the next 60 or 70 pages should lit me up with an interesing and supring ending. :)
Justification is something constantly being pursued by the human conscious to rationalize our actions. As a father how can you stay sane with this situation? My father once told me that he was not disappointed in me but rather disappointed in the fact that I did not, in this situation, give him the opportunity to be a better father then his father was to him. For some reason that seemed to resinate in my soul for quite a while and remains one of those life-quotes you always hear so much about. I found this interesting on many levels, and trust me it does relate to the novel. The son's father really does not have an opportunity to raise his son better then his father raised him as the world is in such different dire situations, so I can understand the father's sense of disappointment, depression, and in ways attempts to justify his continued actions when there obviously is no guaranteed outcome.
In this novel there seems to be no end, no chance to be better then the day before... so what is the point besides survival? The road will be gone and the seas are not seas. Dreams are all nightmares and the only excitement for the boy is living another day. That does not seem to be very exciting when in-fact he would rather die. Then again he is beginning to see what the world can offer, what he can gain and the beauty of the world. Ever notice how when you were learning to walk you looked right in front of your feet? But as we grow older we realize to walk straight and not look like complete idiot we need to look ahead, look forward, despite the consequences. We need to have faith, something the father has begun to successfully instill in the boy.
One of my favorite short poems lies below: “As teens we see in black and white As adults we see in shades of gray As old men we see colors And as we die, we see it all wash away”
I find it interesting how age affects our personality, but that is commonly believed to be caused by societal influences. But what if that were to all change? What if as teens we saw colors and as old men we saw brighter colors? The world would be different and as we see today, as we grow older we learn more, see more, experience more and ultimately appreciate life to a further extent.
The point I am trying, hopefully successfully, attempting to make is that no matter what the father does, no matter what the father says; the father must allow human nature and the influences of the situation take grasp of his kids development. He is not directly being denied the chance to do better then by his father did to him but he is being limited or just given an opportunity in a different way. Perhaps life is a mystery, perhaps the road will not end... but in the mean time the father has found a justification for doing the things he has done, be killing a man or be giving all his food up for his son. Something about family does this, even if separate all their lives. I can not answer it here and neither can you, because there is no answer on why he has the ability to justify his actions. Just understand.
After reading the next 35 pages, there is quite a lot to say, almost too much to remember. first of all, the boy has definately matured a lot and it is very easy to see. The man is no longer hiding dead corpses from his son because the boy has grown up enough to take it seriously and get past it. But the boy is also beginning to question his father. Like when his father stripped the man of his clothes and left him with nothing. The boy finally said something back to his father. "You're not the one who has to worry about everything...Yes I am, he said. I am the one"(218). This was a very powerful statement said by the son. The father is trying to lead himself and his son to the end of the torture they are in. But what the father seems to miss is all the little key points that the young, pure son still notices. The son has a heart with passion and hope for every person. Evan if they are "bad guys". Like as the man stole all their belongings, the son still wanted to help the man as much as he could. Anmother thing is the sons fever. I think that it might symbolize the father's greed for only them. almost like karma. They seem to be approaching the end of the road and I am pretty sure something very interesting will happen because the story has been getting more and more intense leading up to the climax! Let's see what happens! I am excited.
18 comments:
Week 5 was both creepy, but also left you with a happier sense. The beginning was the creepier part. While the father and son were staying in the shed, the boy has a bad dream but doesn’t tell the father what it’s about. All he says is that in the dream he was crying but the father didn’t wake up. This proves that the boy is even more fearful of the future than what he puts across. He has fears that something horrible will happen to his father, and that he will be left to journey alone into the unknown. He begins to dwell on his dreams too much so his father tells him this, “When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will you and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you can’t give up. I won’t let you.” (Page 189) I think the father is using the advice given to him by Ely for living in the moment, not the past, the future, or what you wish the world could be, because that is not going to happen. This brings the boy back to reality.
While they continue on their journey to the coast and they walk through all the dead bodies that are just frozen in time that must be so frightening! This is probably going to be a really bad analogy, but it would almost be like the characters on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, without the moving, just staying however they were forever more.
Finally, they make it to the coast, but they don’t have the happy ending that I think they expected to have when they got there. The coast was the same as everywhere else they had traveled to. When the father swims out to the boat, he sees that it is named “Pajaro de Esperanza.” This means the bird of hope. Did anyone notice that? My feeling is that seeing this abandoned boat means the end of all hope and that after they leave the coast everything will change drastically. Lastly I just have to state for the record that I think the father and son are Jewish. It never is said, and they do not talk ever about religion, but when they first get to the beach, the boy asks to swim in the ocean. The father says “You’ll freeze your tokus off” (Page 217) and that’s Yiddish which a lot of Jews speak. It reminded me of my grandpa, Zeezee, because he always speaks Yiddish!
I agree with Hillary that week 5 in "The Road" was creepy but left you more satisfied at the end. A lot of different events happened in this section. They experienced many dead bodies and heads dried up and decaying. Especially through the town the firestorm went through leaving all the bodies frozen in time.
One of the events I found weird was when they encountered the three men in front of the truck. I understand that the man had his gun but why didn't the three men go after him?
I think the boy is getting more matured and knowledgeable as the story goes on. He wants to protect his dad just like his dad protects him. An example of the boys maturity in the story is when they are walking through the town where the firestorm occurred and the man told the boy he didn't want him to look and the boy answered, "They'll still be there." And when the man looked at the boy he noticed he looked untroubled and it did not scare him. Since the boy has already experienced so much and so many dead bodies, this was no different.
When they finally reached the coast, it was kind of a disappointment because this is where their journey ended but there was nothing here, no good people and no shelter. Now that I know what the saying on the side of the boat “Pajaro de Esperanza” means (thanks to Hillary), I believe that this represents that their is hope in finding what they came to the coast for.
Okay, for me week five was so weird. But it left you feeling a sense of happiness just like Hillary said. The creepy parts were when the boy had that dream in the shed about his father dieing. I don’t know about you but if I had a dream like that I would freak out! But, I think the boy is becoming more knowledgeable of life and death throughout the story. He does what he can to protect his father just like his father protected him for so many years, because he is not ready to be left alone into the unknown world.
Another fearful part was when they walk through the land of the dead! (Basically). This is what they walked for. They walked the road for years to get the coast (which is covered) with lifeless bodies. When they arrive to their distention is as if all hope is lost because it is nothing they imagined. It is horrible and lifeless. Like Hillary said “My feeling is that seeing this abandoned boat means the end of all hope and that after they leave the coast everything will change drastically.” I truly agree with Hillary because all his hopes are gone. And the whole Jewish analogy can be true, but Germans, Russians, Romans and more use the word “Tokus”. All it means is butt.
To top it all off I don’t really like the fact that when they got there, it was as dead as the road. I really wanted a happy ending. Was the author like truly depressed as he was writing this??
The main and first thing I noticed in the beginning of this is the influence that the boy has on his father. The moment the boy suggests that they hide because they think someone is following them, the father agrees immediately and does not protest at all. As you continue through this section, the father recognizes his boys intelligence and growing of age. When he sees the boys burning snakes, tells the boy they are about his age, yet he refers to them as men. When they find the infant cooking over fire it symbolizes an awful event which could take away the boys innocence and calmness. Something to keep in mind is that the boy and the dad have gone through so many horrible and gruesome things; it is probably becoming normal to them now. I know when I read about the infant cooking over the fire; it freaked me out in a different way than I think it freaked the boy and father out. The boy becomes much more child like after this incident and he is a much more scared version of himself. In the later pages, they come to the coast. The boy asks if he can go for a swim and the father replies that the water is freezing. The boy still goes into the water and I think the reason is that he wants his fathers’ attention. He also wants his father to treat him like he is a young boy again. The father even says that he does not want to go into the water to get him, but the boy does not reply. This could suggest that he really does want the father to come in a get him. His new reliance on his father may foreshadow something bad having to do with the boy.
I feel a strange connection with the boy wanting his fathers love and attention. There are times when I will unknowingly act helpless just so that my mom will sit by my side and help me through what I am doing. I think most teenagers go through a part of their life where they feel they do not need their parents much anymore, but then they realize that there is no way they could survive without them there.
Alright...Well as i have read more in to the novel i have begun to notice more imperative things. To begin, the boys is starting to show a role of leardership and determination to live. For example the part where the boy tells the father that they think someone is following them shows how he want him and his dad to not only keep living but stay safe and out of the open. i think the father is getting to the part where he figures i is better to trust the boy and listen to him because maybe he is right. Also, i think when the dad tells the boy not to swim and he disobeys him i think it forshawdows danger because it could happen in more a future situation while making their journey down south. Now, i have also come to a conclusion that i think the coast is a symbol of survival. not only for food sources but in general if the road that they are walking on ever ends they at least can build a log raft and float to shore.
Cormac McCarthy, throughout his novel displays imagery that helps me understand what is going on half the time. not only is his vocabulary hard enough to understand but his style of writing helps me figure out and comprehend what is happening and going on in the book.
In my opinion the next 45 pages of "The Road" were both slightly disturbing and relieving. In my opinion the part where they walk through all the dead bodies was extremely shuddersome because there was nothing that the father could do to keep his son from seeing it. The other extremely unpleasant section of week 5 was when they found the infant cooking over the fire. Its things like these that make you wonder what McCartney was thinking at the moments he wrote those parts. I mean that part was utterly disgusting to me.
I think that the dream the little boy has when they are still in the shed is an indication that he is worried that something is going to happen to his father, and that he will then have no choice but to move on alone.
When they make it to the coast i think that it is not what they expected it to be. In a way i think that the little boy was hoping that the coast was going to be a much happier place then traveling, i think that he was expecting the water to be nice and blue, and all his hopes and expectations were let down when they got there. I know that it was definetley relieving to reach the coast for them, but also a let down to see what the coast had become.
In this week reading of the road was very odd. To begin, did they finally make it to the coast or some sort of lake that was huge? Second, why did they stay at the house longer than any other and how was there nobody else around. I mean are the main characters the only two people to survive besides the regime that they are hiding from? This story keeps on confusing me I mean it’s a great book on how people struggle to survive in the end of the world. Also, wasn’t the coast supposed to be the end of the story or is there more to this story than just making it to the coast.
The father changes his character throughout this section of the book by having hope. He brings hope to himself, unusual for him because he usually only brings hope to his son, but keeps his soul quiet, sad, and vigilant. I was expecting the two to find more people once they found the coast, but all they found was a gray, dull ocean. The boy completely changes his mood by running around the beach, screaming and yelling, then going into the water and enjoying himself in the cold, cold ocean. This truly expresses an immediate change in the boy's attitude.
Also, I must disagree with Tal. For me, this part of the book brings a short lived excitement to the reader with the boy running around the beach, but then is quickly diminished by the thousands of dead fish parts along the beach and the dried up beach plants and ashes.
Also, I agree with Julie you can see that the father truly treats his son as an equal (although with vigilance) and they begin to make decisions as a 2-man team.
I think the boy is growing up more and more, and for that reason, has less trust in his father. In the boy’s nightmare, he dreams that he is crying, but his father cannot hear him. I think that symbolizes that the boy thinks that even with tears, his father might not rescue him.
After all that traveling to the coast, it was a huge let down. However, I am anxious to find out where they will make camp, because the beach gets very cold at night. An addition, I thought the boat was very symbolic. It is empty, although it is not ransacked. It is implied that the ocean washed everything away. Nature took everything from the deck of the boat, not man. Nature made the ashes. Nature put the man and the boy in this situation. And Pajaro de Esperanza, the bird of hope (thank you Hillary). The man and the boy hoped that they could escape the situation by reaching the coast; almost fly away from it, like a bird.
But, as for the rest of their journey, I have no predictions. They have reached their destination without satisfaction. Where are they going to go?
I think that alot of maturing has happened in this section of "The Road". The boy has stepped it up quite a bit and has been given much more responsibility. On the other hand, the man has been deteriorating both physically and mentally. His health seems to be getting worse and worse, and he seems to have lost faith. Also, there were several scenes that convey an extreme sense of emotion- the infant scene, the final arrival at the coast, and the dreams. The disturbing scenes were still disturbing, but i think the reader has become accustomed to that by now. However the final arrival at the coast brought a new feeling that has not yet been experienced in the book so far.
This section of the book was very interesting because it seemed as if the man and the boy switched places. The boy begins to take on a leadership position between the two of them and you begin to see hope forming within the man.
They definitely encountered a lot in this section of the book, and I think it left them with more motivation to survive. Once they reach the coast all the feelings of hope and motivation leave them because they realize that this is what they had worked so hard to reach.
In this part of the book.... the boy seemed to mature a bit and take on more responsibilities where as the man is almost the opposite. The man's health has greatly decreased. I thought it was very interesting. As Neda said, the man and boy switch positions in the sense of leadership. The man can no longer hold his own so in turn, the boy had to step up to plate, so to speak. Their journey must have been frightening but they finally made it to the coast. Once, they made it the reader and the characters in my opinion were very disappointed in the final outcome. There was nothing special at this coast, however on the side of an abandoned boat the words read "Pajaro de Esperanza" ....of hope, there still may be hope! As many said, that is a pretty satisfying ending.
I think the boys relationship with his father has grown to be more dependent. I think the dream the boy had where his father doesn’t wake up to him crying worries him. I feel the boy knows that one day his father won’t be there and it frightens him. Also when the boy is talking to his father his father says the boy doesn’t believe him, but the boy replies, “Yes I do. I have to.” I think the boy feels this way because he has nobody else’s opinion to listen to. I thought it was really creepy when they were walking across the dead bodies melted into the road, and like Hillary I thought of Pirates of the Caribbean!
I liked this chapter a lot more than the others. You see more emotion from the father and son and it gives you a feeling of sentiment and that the story will get better. They pass dead bodies and 3 men with a truck. I’m utterly confused with this entire story because its not engaging to me. I cant sit and read a drab story with things getting worse and worse. And to top it all off when they get to the coast there is nothing there. No friendly people, any food, shelter, or guarantee of safety at all. It was an utter waste of time for the father and son, but I guess the walking to the coast gave them hope and made them hold on.
i thought this book maybe sometimes boring and sometimes interesting. In pages 181-225 or week 5, the boy proves himself that he must get over his own fears. He learns a little from his father, but he is also experiencing himself to be a young man. Well, i don't have a great mind on week 5, but the next 60 or 70 pages should lit me up with an interesing and supring ending. :)
Justification is something constantly being pursued by the human conscious to rationalize our actions. As a father how can you stay sane with this situation? My father once told me that he was not disappointed in me but rather disappointed in the fact that I did not, in this situation, give him the opportunity to be a better father then his father was to him. For some reason that seemed to resinate in my soul for quite a while and remains one of those life-quotes you always hear so much about. I found this interesting on many levels, and trust me it does relate to the novel. The son's father really does not have an opportunity to raise his son better then his father raised him as the world is in such different dire situations, so I can understand the father's sense of disappointment, depression, and in ways attempts to justify his continued actions when there obviously is no guaranteed outcome.
In this novel there seems to be no end, no chance to be better then the day before... so what is the point besides survival? The road will be gone and the seas are not seas. Dreams are all nightmares and the only excitement for the boy is living another day. That does not seem to be very exciting when in-fact he would rather die. Then again he is beginning to see what the world can offer, what he can gain and the beauty of the world. Ever notice how when you were learning to walk you looked right in front of your feet? But as we grow older we realize to walk straight and not look like complete idiot we need to look ahead, look forward, despite the consequences. We need to have faith, something the father has begun to successfully instill in the boy.
One of my favorite short poems lies below:
“As teens we see in black and white
As adults we see in shades of gray
As old men we see colors
And as we die, we see it all wash away”
I find it interesting how age affects our personality, but that is commonly believed to be caused by societal influences. But what if that were to all change? What if as teens we saw colors and as old men we saw brighter colors? The world would be different and as we see today, as we grow older we learn more, see more, experience more and ultimately appreciate life to a further extent.
The point I am trying, hopefully successfully, attempting to make is that no matter what the father does, no matter what the father says; the father must allow human nature and the influences of the situation take grasp of his kids development. He is not directly being denied the chance to do better then by his father did to him but he is being limited or just given an opportunity in a different way. Perhaps life is a mystery, perhaps the road will not end... but in the mean time the father has found a justification for doing the things he has done, be killing a man or be giving all his food up for his son. Something about family does this, even if separate all their lives. I can not answer it here and neither can you, because there is no answer on why he has the ability to justify his actions. Just understand.
After reading the next 35 pages, there is quite a lot to say, almost too much to remember. first of all, the boy has definately matured a lot and it is very easy to see. The man is no longer hiding dead corpses from his son because the boy has grown up enough to take it seriously and get past it. But the boy is also beginning to question his father. Like when his father stripped the man of his clothes and left him with nothing. The boy finally said something back to his father. "You're not the one who has to worry about everything...Yes I am, he said. I am the one"(218). This was a very powerful statement said by the son. The father is trying to lead himself and his son to the end of the torture they are in. But what the father seems to miss is all the little key points that the young, pure son still notices. The son has a heart with passion and hope for every person. Evan if they are "bad guys". Like as the man stole all their belongings, the son still wanted to help the man as much as he could.
Anmother thing is the sons fever. I think that it might symbolize the father's greed for only them. almost like karma. They seem to be approaching the end of the road and I am pretty sure something very interesting will happen because the story has been getting more and more intense leading up to the climax! Let's see what happens! I am excited.
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