“Goodbye” is a word that we use often. We use it on the phone, when we go our separate ways with friends and family. At the end of “The Road,” the boy wants to say bye to his father, “What about my papa?/There’s nothing else to be done/I think I want to say goodbye to him/Will You be all right?/Yes” (285-286). For the little boy, this was the last time he would ever see him, it was not a kind of “goodbye” that we use in our everyday language. According to Oxford Dictionary, it is, “used to express good wishes when parting or at the end of a conversation.”
In one of Carrie Underwood’s songs, “Starts With Goodbye,” she sings,
I guess it's gonna have to hurt,
I guess I'm gonna have to cry,
And let go of some things I've loved,
To get to the other side,
I guess it's gonna break me down,
Like falling when you try to fly,
It's sad, but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life,
Starts with goodbye.
The boy is moving on with the rest of his life after his father dies. He is starting a whole new chapter in his life with this new family that he does not know very well. He has to end up trusting them and depending on them just like he did with his father for basically his whole life. He has to let go and it did break him down. This is significant because throughout the book, he is with his father who keeps him alive and protects him to the best of his ability and now he finally has to say goodbye to him. Before reading this text, I had not really thought of this word like this. To me, goodbye meant not seeing the person for a while, but not forever. Thankfully, I have never had to say bye to someone who meant a lot to me, but at such a young age, I cannot imagine how it felt to him especially since he was the only other person in his life.
"Oxford Dictionaries ." Oxford University Press, 2011. Web. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com /definition/goodbye?region=us>.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Fire - Annotation
Fire is a huge part of The Road. “He’d come down with a fever and they lay in the woods like fugitives. Nowhere to build a fire. Nowhere safe. The boy sat in the leaves watching him. His eyes brimming. Are you going to die, Papa? he said. Are you going to die” (186)? The father and son have to make sure no one sees them because they do not want to take a chance in getting hurt. The definition of brim, figuratively, is, being possessed by or fill of feelings or thoughts. The father probably has a million of ideas going through his head about what is going to happen next. Meanwhile, they are cold and the father is sick and his son thinks he might die soon.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, fire is, “combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke.” Fire symbolizes many things; controlled force, food, creating civilization, light in darkness, security, defense and a difference between good and bad. Fire enables them to eat warm food and drink coffee. The effect of this language changes the reader’s thoughts. Most of us nowadays can go to a fire place, turn on the gas, put a match in it and get some fire wood and the fire will start right away. We do not have to do what the father and son are doing. We use it for warmth while they use it for security, food and so they will not freeze all the time. It represents the historical period because the time back then was very different, especially in their world since basically everything was destroyed. They do not have warm shelter that they can rely on to go home to every night with a thermostat.
This device of fire brings security to the text. It makes them feel somewhat secure knowing that they will not freeze to death or go more hungry than they already are. Although when the fuel runs out, the little boy believes it to be all his fault and feels terrible even though his father does not blame him. This passage is essential because it really makes not only them worry about their own future, but it also makes us worry about them. A place to build a fire where no one can see is a reoccurring aspect in this novel.
"Oxford Dictionaries ." Oxford University Press, 2011. Web. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com /definition/fire?region=us>.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, fire is, “combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke.” Fire symbolizes many things; controlled force, food, creating civilization, light in darkness, security, defense and a difference between good and bad. Fire enables them to eat warm food and drink coffee. The effect of this language changes the reader’s thoughts. Most of us nowadays can go to a fire place, turn on the gas, put a match in it and get some fire wood and the fire will start right away. We do not have to do what the father and son are doing. We use it for warmth while they use it for security, food and so they will not freeze all the time. It represents the historical period because the time back then was very different, especially in their world since basically everything was destroyed. They do not have warm shelter that they can rely on to go home to every night with a thermostat.
This device of fire brings security to the text. It makes them feel somewhat secure knowing that they will not freeze to death or go more hungry than they already are. Although when the fuel runs out, the little boy believes it to be all his fault and feels terrible even though his father does not blame him. This passage is essential because it really makes not only them worry about their own future, but it also makes us worry about them. A place to build a fire where no one can see is a reoccurring aspect in this novel.
"Oxford Dictionaries ." Oxford University Press, 2011. Web. <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com /definition/fire?region=us>.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Road
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is about a father and son who walk alone through burned America in a post apocalyptic world. McCarthy’s writing style makes the readers feel as if they should be appreciative with the lives we have. As Americans, most of us take our life for granted. We come to home to a nice warm bed and a house with a stocked kitchen that could feed a ton of people. While people read this story, we should realize that everyone is not as fortunate as us, for example, the father and his son.
Food and shelter is a big problem for these characters. The boy has to depend on his father to find food throughout their journey so they can survive. “In an old bat board smokehouse they found a ham gambreled up in a high corner. It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn,” but that was their only option (9). If any of us saw food like that, we would automatically throw it away without thinking. There is no shelter for them either, “He pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and it came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup” (3). Nowadays whenever we see someone with a grocery cart and a tarp who’s not at a store, we classify them as homeless. Usually there is just one person with it, but in this case there are two. They are making their way down South, partly because it is warmer there, so then they will not have to be cold with their low supply of blankets.
Right from the beginning of this story, I felt as if more people should do something to help the homeless population. In the story, the little boy wanted to help the burnt man and his father did not because they did not have anything to give him. It shows how unselfish and naive this little boy is even though he was barely surviving. It shows how many people today are selfish or scared to give homeless or injured people money or just simple help. This whole story allows us to reflect on our lives and realize how blessed we are with everything here for us.
Food and shelter is a big problem for these characters. The boy has to depend on his father to find food throughout their journey so they can survive. “In an old bat board smokehouse they found a ham gambreled up in a high corner. It looked like something fetched from a tomb, so dried and drawn,” but that was their only option (9). If any of us saw food like that, we would automatically throw it away without thinking. There is no shelter for them either, “He pulled the blue plastic tarp off of him and folded it and carried it out to the grocery cart and packed it and it came back with their plates and some cornmeal cakes in a plastic bag and a plastic bottle of syrup” (3). Nowadays whenever we see someone with a grocery cart and a tarp who’s not at a store, we classify them as homeless. Usually there is just one person with it, but in this case there are two. They are making their way down South, partly because it is warmer there, so then they will not have to be cold with their low supply of blankets.
Right from the beginning of this story, I felt as if more people should do something to help the homeless population. In the story, the little boy wanted to help the burnt man and his father did not because they did not have anything to give him. It shows how unselfish and naive this little boy is even though he was barely surviving. It shows how many people today are selfish or scared to give homeless or injured people money or just simple help. This whole story allows us to reflect on our lives and realize how blessed we are with everything here for us.
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