Mid Term Essay MLA Format

The story, The Road, begins with an unnamed man and boy in the woods. The story is set in a “post-apocalyptic world,” with the date, time and location unknown. “McCarthy himself imagines the disaster to be a meteor strike, although he claims that "his money is on humans destroying each other before an environmental catastrophe sets in (Cooper);” others say they see the setting as a post nuclear war setting. Throughout the reading, the reader can assume that the story takes place in the United States because the man mentions following the “state roads.” We first see the man and boy in the woods, it is morning time and the man has just risen from his sleep. He checks on the boy and then walks to the road to get his bearings. He thinks it is October but is unsure because he has not kept a calendar in a long time, indicating that the area has been desolate for an extended amount of time. They plan to move South, hoping that the climate will provide for less harsh winters. When he goes back to camp, the boy wakes up and they have breakfast. After they eat, they pack up all their belongings and head along the road. They push a cart with supplies and carry a knapsack with their essential belongings, should they need to abandon the cart and run for safety. They come across an abandoned gas station where the man finds old bottles of oil they can burn in their lamp and a phone where he tries to dial the number to his father’s house but there is no phone service any more. They continue their walk after gathering all they could from the station. They crest a hill and see all the ashen houses and billboards in the city below. They make camp for the night under a rock cliff after it starts to rain. The next morning they walk through the city...

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...r but left it where it was still clear as to what was important to his writing. I liked reading the story because it was very descriptive. McCarthy is a very unique author and I may read more of his stories in the future. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in “post-apocalyptic” themed stories as this seemed to be the main setting for the story.

Works Cited

Brandt, Kenneth K. “A World Thoroughly Unmade: McCarthy’s Conclusion to THE ROAD.”

The Explicator 70.1 (2012): 63-66. EBSCOhost. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. .

Cooper, Lydia. “Project MUSE- Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as Apocalyptic Grail

Narrative.” Project MUSE- Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as Apocalyptic Grail

Narrative. University of North Texas, n.d. Web. 02 Jan. 2014.