The cancelling down of the road

"Dark of the invisible moon"-(page 32) Time expands.
"And then one evening he stopped and looked all about..."- (page 33) Time expands.
"Where he stood once with his own father in a winter long ago"-(page 34) References to a time before (flashbacks).
"It's getting colder every day"-(page 42) Time expanding.
"The tree had been there for years"-(page 45). More abstract reference to time.

Passage of the days:
"In the evening" pg 92
"In the morning" pg 93
"He woke in the morning" pg 95
"In the afternoon" pg 98
"When day broke" pg 103
"Within the hour" pg 110


Markers in the year:
"It could be November" pg 93

Telescoped time:
"In the evening... tomorrow... dark of night" pg 92 - all in one paragraph



Before (flash backs):
"He'd had this feeling before" pg 93

Suspended time:
"The snow fell nor did it cease to fall" pg 101


Other:
"It takes a long time" pg 106
"We probably don't have much time" pg 109
‘it was almost light enough to see’ – 123
‘The boy wouldn’t wake for hours’ – p124
‘He wondered if it was even midnight’ – 133‘He was gone longer than he’d meant to be’ – gives an indication of time flying p130
Expanded narrative time‘Lingering odour of cows... and he realized they were extinct’ – p127
‘nothing in his memory anywhere of anything so good’ – p130
Abstract references‘He would have ample time later to think about that’ – shows there are no deadlines/rushing p113
'In the night he was wakened by the muted patter of rain' (Page 162) - Passage of time
'They spent the day eating and sleeping' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time
'Impossible to tell what time of the day he was looking at' (Page 164) - Abstract reference to time
'The day was brief, hardly a day at all' (Page 164) - Telescoping through time.‘When did you eat last?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘You don’t remember.’
This shows the reader that there is no reason for people on the road to remember when they have eaten as they have no reason to plan meals. We only plan meals today because our day follows a set routine and we eat to keep up with this. On the road however, day and night have almost become one due to the ash and dust that falls, blocking out the sun. They have no concept of time and no reason for it so all they can really distinguish between is day and night so it is easy to imagine how a person could lose track of the days as they are all the same; as long as they are alive, they have no reason to remember when or what they eat.
‘How long have you been on the road?’ ‘I’ve always been on the road.’
Once again, in this section, McCarthy uses the dialogue between two characters to make the reader question the necessity of time; the fact that the man can’t actually remember how long he has been on the road for suggests that time is insignificant. The way that the man says he has always been on the road would suggest that time is standing still for these people. McCarthy handles time simply by putting a halt to it to show that it is just another thing on the road which is dying.
‘People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them.’
This quote is suggesting that for all the care we take over time, it doesn’t care about us. It is telling the reader that all the worry we have over keeping to a schedule is ridiculous because time is a made up thing and isn’t going to alter itself to suit us. All the people who worried and invested plans in the future, ironically, weren’t actually as prepared for the next day as they could have been where as those who take each day as it comes are surviving still as they had no expectations and don’t need time to rule their lives.
‘You said it would last a few weeks’ ‘I know.’ ‘But it’s just been a few days.’
This back up the previous quote in suggesting that time is speeding up and things are going a lot quicker than the man and the boy expected them to.
Page 233: 'With dark they built a fire.' Shows the turning of day to night.
Page 219-224: Several pages devoted to a short time, less than half an hour. Every little detail is told.
Page 228-229: Time goes very fast, one second they are at the abandoned house and in the next paragraph they are standing in a supermarket. Then it skips to 'Long days' and we cannot tell whether is has been days or weeks or months.
Page 234: Flashback, 'he remembered walking once on such a night...' he is comparing his old beach memories to his experiences on the beach now. He is remembering a better time. This is significant because flashbacks occur throughout the novel as a running theme.
Time- Pages 260-280
1) "He fixed dinner" could suggest evening time p. 261
2) "He loaded the flarepistol and as soon as it was dark" p.262
4) "He held him all night" p.265
7) "The boy slept all day" p.267
10) "When he woke again" "Grey daylight" p.268
13) " ...stood there in the cold and gathering dark" p. 278
"The wintery dawn was coming" p. 266- This suggests that the months are later in the year. We depend on hints like the weather and how McCarthy describes the sceneary to establish/ estimate what time of the year it is.
"In three days they came to a small port town"- This passage of time has no mention of what may have happened within those three days,which creates confusion as the reader wonders why this passage of time has gone quicker than others as McCarthy often describes the days/nights events.
"In two days' time they were walking the beach as far as the headland and back"- Again time has passed quickly as we do not get any description of what has happened within those two days.

The shooting of the Road Rat and the stealing of their possessions is an example of Narrative time expanding. This is too build up the tension of what The man will do to him. Also the narrative time could be expanded to show the true character of The man, and how The boy reacts to his fathers actions. The event goes for seven pages. McCarthy may have done this to show the raw emotions of the boy and how his fathers action have shaped and changed his view of him.
Points at which time seems to be suspended...

When The boy and The man are looking for their stolen cart, time seems to be suspended "They went on. It was already late in the day and it was another hour into the long dusk" the words "Another" and "long" create a sense of time going slowly. This creates tension as the reader wonders if they will find their cart as time seems to be running out for them before it starts to get dark. McCarthy suspends time here to build up tension, "They went on." makes it seem like they have been searching of their cart for a long time. This suspends time because we as the readers want them to get their belongings back, but it appears to be taking a while to find the thief so we start to doubt id they will find it.

When the boy becomes ill, time seems susupended. ""You have to stay near, he said. You have to be quick. So you can be with him. Hold him close. Last day of the earth" Time appears to be suspended becasue the we can sense that the man is worried for the boy, and it seems like he is getting worse so time has slowed down and is hanging on to this tense moment. The mans speech also creates suspended time as it appears like he is trying to prepare himself for the worst, which creates more tension.

Shrek in McCarthys style

The pumpkin cart left the dusty, damp, dark swamp with regret filling it. The man sat there knowing of the long drive ahead of them.

Are we there yet?
No.
Okay.
Okay.

Are we there yet?
No.
Okay.
Okay.

Are we there yet?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.

The man girl and donkey peered towards the overly bleak buildings in search of the castle that held all their dreams, far far away.
Around the cart many citizens stood almost like zombies staring at the cart slowly making its way through their teritory. Out of place.
The man sat there watching the donkey look out at all the difference in scenery wondering why he had never been here before. All the man could say was. I'm sorry.
Not sure on what he was sorry for. Maybe the dissapointing ride he'd given him to far far away. Maybe for the life he had given him.
The road to the castle was slowly becoming more and more deserted the longer the distance.
When getting to the castle the boys face dimmed.
I'm sorry.
Its okay.
Okay.

8th November 2012

What does it mean to be alive in a dead world? -> this is existentialism

The repetition of the letter S symbollises the noise that the river makes as that is all they can hear because it 'masks' any other noises. Sibalence.

Period 5.
Structure and the handling of time.
Page 1-
''Nights beyond darkness and the days more grey each one than what had gone before''
Narrative time, night time, the past has been a long time and nothings ever changed

Page 263
''In the morning he built a fire and walked out on the beach''
Reference to the passage of the day

Page 111
''They'd had no food and little in five days''
Narrative time is telescoped

Page 78
''He woke up in the night with the cold and rose and broke up more wood for the fire''
Reference to markers in the year.
(Winter/cold month)

Page 111
''They kicked snow over the fire and went on through the trees and circled and came back''
Winter

Page 226
''They stayed at the house for four days eating''
Narrative time is telescoped

''Winter was already upon them''
Marker in the year

5th November 2012

First 6 pages
How does the episode impact on you? What was the writer doing to evoke this response?

• Makes you feel emotions inside you
• Sadness
• Privilidge
• Guilt (feeling sorry for them)
• Confusion

He does this by using very emotive language. ''Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth and the hours and the days of it and the years without cease''

Plot progression (what will happen next?)
Foreshadowing..

• The cart gets stolen
• They meet someone on the road
• Someone gets shot with the pistol

''He took the pistol from his belt and laid it on the cloth''

Your experience (change of mood? a lighter moment? increase or release of tension?)

• No change of mood.. all drab and boring
• Gas station = sign of hope
• No release of tension even in gas station, because the man is still sceptical

''We have to go back''

How does this develop charectors and their relationship?

• Man and son ''papa''
• Boy is reliant of the man
• Man is there to take care of boy

''I'm right here.
I know''

The techniques employed by McCarthy.. Is the language in keeping with the rest of the novel? Are there particular symbols or images that are fore grounded?

• The novel is simple, no punctuation, no climax but the language is sophisticated in certain areas. 'Glaucoma' <- symbollic of what they can see in the road (cloudy, misty, not clear)
• Symbols
• Beast ''And on the far shore acreature that raised its dripping mouth from the rimstone pool and stared into the light with eyes dead white and sightless as the eggs of spiders.

Is this infact a key episode? What makes it important? How does it stand out in a novel without chapters or chapter lines?

• First time you meet charectors
• Imagery of setting
• Introduction
• Desporate
• Relationship
• Being chased

- The theft of the man and boy's belongings (pp. 270-278)

This affected me because I actually felt sorry for the man who tried to steal their cart, as if I was starving and cold, and enough supplies for two people came along, I would steal them. McCarthy evoked this response by making the man plead for all his stuff back, and making sure that I, as a reader understand how desperate the old man was to have his clothes back. I think that they will see the man again in the novel and he will have lots of food and loads of supplies and then the man will ask for some but will be turned away. This is a change of mood as you can tell that the man was getting more and more stressed about life on the road, and being in contact with this old man and being able to hurt him like the way he hurt them could release some of his tension, in a weird way. This develops the man’s character as you find out that he is ridiculously stubborn and that he has some morals. This can make use think of the moral ‘Don’t treat others how you would not like to be treated’ and gives the novel and kind of meaning, not throughout the entire novel but just in this little scene. I don’t think that it is a key scene, as the story would be fine without it.  

- getting to the shore (pp. 227 - 230)

This impacted me because I started to feel like they would never get to the shore, and then all of a sudden they were there, but again, it was a disappointment, it was like they had been waiting for ages to get to the shore and when they got there, it was nothing like they imagined, so much so that the man had to apologise to the boy. I think that the boy will want to leave the beach because it’s upsetting him because it’s nothing like he imagined, and then they will carry on down the road. I think this changes the mood as it’s a lighter moment because their journey to the shore is finally over, but then it’s sad because they still have another journey to do. This shows that the boy and the man care for each other as the man apologises because it’s not making the boy happy, which is obviously what he wants. This is a key episode because they have finished their original journey, and are now about to start their new one. It stands out because it is a real release of tension.

 

- The baby on the spit (pp. 210-215)

This affected me because I sat here disgusted that someone would do that to a little boy, but then I realised the circumstances, and I thought that although this might seem strange for me, the man and the boy, none of us know how long the people that were going to eat him hadn’t eaten, it might have been their only choice. I think that the boy will keep talking about this and maybe the people that did it to the little boy may come back and do it to the son or try to. I think this dramatically drops the mood of the entire novel, although the man has killed someone, he would never kill a boy, even to save his son, he thought his son how to kill himself so he wouldn’t have to do it, and then they find a little boy, on a spit roast. It’s horrific. I think the language is a little more graphic in this scene as to properly describe the scenery to make the imagery for this scene even more real. This is a key episode because it shows how hard it is to live on the road, and how people are coping with living on the road.

- finding the cellar of naked and mutilated people (pp. 112-121)

This impacted me a lot because I felt sorry for the man, the boy and the people inside the house. This scene was a bit of a shocker as the rest of the story is very dull and boring and suddenly it becomes gory and interesting. McCarty used the technique to make all the sentences longer so the reader has to read it quicker, therefore building up the tension of the whole scene, this is to make the reader read it as they are on a timer and they only have so much time before they die. I think that they will be found by the people who own the house and get brought into the house with the other people, almost get killed but escape together at the end of the story, to roam the road forever. This is a release of tension, I have been waiting for an interesting moment for a while when I get to this point in the book and this fulfils my needs, it’s a very different approach to the rest of the book as its completely contradicting. The language is very descriptive in this scene, although he has written it so that you read is quickly, he hasn’t missed out on any information about the house or the people as he still wants to explain fully what is happening, so that he does not rush the scene. This is a key episode as the man tells the boy how to kill himself which is referenced later in the book, so without this scene it would not make sense, it makes the boy stronger as the man finally trusts him with the pistol even though its only got one bullet in it after the shooting of the road rat.

- coming across the man who has been struck by lightning (pp. 50-53)

This impacted me because I started to feel sorry for the boy, as he doesn’t really understand that he can’t help the man or he will die, even by the end of this scene he doesn’t feel 100 per cent sure that he couldn’t. I think the writer made this so that the man was especially harsh on the boy so that he got his point across, but also made us feel even more sympathy for the boy. I think that the boy will keep asking the man if he can go back to help him, or they will find the man that got struck by lightning further ahead in the novel. I don’t think this changed the mood of the novel as it was a pretty sad novel anyway. And this doesn’t change it, it is still pretty sad. I think the language stays the same, although he does use a lot more dialogue. This is a pretty important scene as it shows the softer side of the boy and the sternness of the man, and how much power over the boy he has.  

shooting the 'road rat' (pp. 62-69)

 This impacted me because it was the first time in the book where I was actually shocked at what happened, it was the first time there was a sort of climax in the book and it was the first time that I felt that if I stopped reading halfway through this scene, that I would actually want to read on. McCarthy did this section really well as he built up the tension slowly, as this was the first climax he could have ended it really quickly but he didn’t. I think that the people in the truck will have heard the road rat being killed and they find the man and the boy and something happens to them. This is a release of tension as something very interesting happened. This scene develops the character relationships as you can tell that the man definitely looks after the boy as he carries him off, also you can tell that the man is harder than you thought he was as he actually kills the man, even though before this, I didn’t think that he would.  I think that the language is in keeping with the rest of the novel, even though this is the first climax, he doesn’t make it extra special by using extreme language, he keeps is simple, so that the moment is not ruined by people not understanding the words. I don’t think this is a key episode, all it shows is how rough the man is and how tough the boy is, that he doesn’t cry or even move. It stands out because it is a pretty important climax as it’s very out of character.

This is my child, he said. I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job.

With the word ‘my’ he is showing that the child is his and no one else’s, if there was anyone else then it would have been ‘our’. By the way that he says it, its shows he wants people to know that it is his child, that he is proud for it to be his child, and so people know not to mess with the child because they are his. By using the word ‘job’ it can say that he has to work to look after the child and although he doesn’t get paid in money, he gets paid in other aspects. This can infer that the theme of the story might be the love that is shared between the father and son and what happens within that. It also shows characterisation that the father of the son is very protective and as you can tell he says this very monotone so you can tell he is not a very jolly person.

Yes I am, he said. I am the one.

The short sentences in this quote can show us that the person who says it is being very blunt, and they are either not happy about being ‘the one’ or is ashamed about it.

Tomatoes, peaches, beans, apricots. Canned hams, corned beef.

With him listing his food, you can tell by the size of the list that he is starved because he can list all of the food he has whereas most people will not be able to do that. Also, by the end of the list you can tell he is getting more excited as he has started to go into more detail by the end of the list. You can tell that the story is a story of someone who is going to be starved for a long time as all of the foods that he has listed are very well at being kept preserved, they don’t go out of date easily, so this could be because of planning ahead.

Are we still the good guys, he said.

This can show that the person who says this is doubting his faith in himself as he is questioning him self. It can also tell us that he may have had an epiphany within the story and has realised that he may actually not be the good guys, this could also show that this could be after a climax in the story as he could have something terrible and is regretting it.

We should go, Papa, he said. Yes, the man said. But he didn’t.

Throughout the book it is all about struggle and them living on the road, but as you can tell with the way the little boy says ‘Papa’ you can see that he is of a higher class and probably shouldn’t have to struggle, this can mean that someone bad has happened to them or the country that higher class people have to struggle for food. By the way that he doesn’t move you can infer that he either doesn’t want to move because he can’t or because he’s holding on to something either physical or emotional that he doesn’t want to let go of.

The snow did not fall nor did it cease to fall

The normal pathetic fallacy for snow is a happy environment and normally when you have a father and son in the snow you think about them playing in the snow having a good time, but it is the complete opposite for this, the father and son do not want to play in the snow, in fact they would like the snow to disappear so they can go back to normal and not freeze and get pneumonia, which can tell us that the book is a little boring as they are given a reason to be happy but they chose to ignore is anyway.  

Okay? Okay.

The way that he answers his own question could tell that he is alone so there is no one else so answer it or that he is insecure about saying okay so he needs to question himself about it. This could tell us a lot about his character, it could tell us that he is a quite insecure person and he needs to check everything he does with himself but it could also say the complete opposite and say that he never doubts himself so this is a change, and he doesn’t change his mind because he doesn’t actually in the end say ‘Okay’.

Tolling in the silence the minutes of the earth.

The word silence makes it sound they are on their own, which they are, and can make the novel sound like it is literally a father and son walking down a road and there is minimal interruption from other people. This gives the novel and eerie sense as the world is silence, not to just a little bit of the earth but the whole earth, this could also make us question what happened as it must have been so catastrophic because it made the whole world silent.