Hunger And The Apocalypse In Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

I am interested in seeing the two texts from the perspective of contemporary culture in the two countries – the research into what the humanity is going towards, and how it can end. → Could it be that the decline of moral grounds in the contemporary society, consumption-oriented culture opposed to the spiritual development (not necessarily religious) and excessive confidence in human power are leading to the complete destruction of society as we know it?

CONTENTS (key ideas):

1. the idea of civilization coming the full circle and coming back to the origins/savagery. So, here post apocalyptic narrative is the history backwards/upside-down

→ first of all, it is evident from both texts how humanity takes a huge step back in the development,

The man and the boy are always in search of food, and the lack of it in the winter times eventually leads to the man's death, since he sacrifices almost everything he can find for the wellness of his son.

Secondary reading on hunger in The Road: from “Hunger and the Apocalypse in Cormac McCarthy's The Road” by Matthew Mullins, University of Nebraska Press (2001)

“Hunger is a silent inquisitor of each character of the novel” p.79

“McCarthy challenges this “liberalism of neutrality” by stripping away all the established political systems and contexts, and leaving us with hunger as the only infrastructure available to the man and the boy on the road they travel.” p.79

→ the rituals and habits associated with food.

- Slynx – hunting on mice. The only available meat, that does not seem dangerous to the population. However, this is almost de-humanizes the characters of the novel for the contemporary readership, demonstrating their similarity to animals (e.g. cats), because in the perception of contemporary readers, mice are associated with all sorts of disease. (comically, the main source of disease in Slynx are imagined to be books and not

New Year, associated with feast and sharing.

- The road – the ritual of sharing food is the sign of humanity. One example is the episode where the man and the boy encounter an old man on the road, and the boy insists on sharing food with