The Road (Preferably) Not Taken: Cormac McCarthy's The Road

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Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, is the story of the journey taken by an unnamed father and his son in order to find a safe haven in a world destroyed by an unspecified catastrophe. This devastation has managed to wipe out just about every living thing on the planet. Although the novel does not clearly state what the cause of this cataclysm was, evidence suggests that they are living in what is the outcome of a nuclear war. The land is filled with ash and is uninhabited by animals and most plant life. In an attempt to survive, some of the remaining survivors resort to cannibalism. In her article, "The Road to Post Apocalyptic Fiction: McCarthy's Challenges to Post-Apocalyptic Genre," literature professor Glenna M. Andrade writes, "The Road is more than a simple quest for a safe home. It challenges the boundaries of the typical Post Apocalypse novel and complicates the usual, hopeful ending." The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel taking place after what is believed to be a nuclear war. A post-apocalyptic novel is typically set in a world after a catastrophe has occurred and will focus on survivors and how they deal with the disaster. It may also include the idea that the existence of society before the devastation has been forgotten. In reference to the father having to adjust to the new world he now lives in, McCarthy writes, "Like the dying world the newly blind inhabit, all of it slowly fading from memory" (The Road - 18). Throughout the novel, the father has flashbacks of the world before now and he realizes everything about the world he once knew is going to fade away until the only thing known about it is what exists at the present time. "The Road includes the father as a typical survivor of the old world to serve as a bri... ... middle of paper ... ...ettling work on unmatched literary genius that exceeds any debate of genre. Works Cited , Victor. "McCarthy, Cormac 1933—." American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement 8. Ed. Jay Parini. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 175-92. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. . 2. Andrade, Glenna M., "The Road to Post Apocalyptic Fiction: McCarthy’s Challenges to Post-Apocalyptic Genre" (2009). Feinstein College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Papers. Paper 20. http://docs.rwu.edu/fcas_fp/20 3. http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/mccarthy_road.html 4. Kirkman, Robert, Charles Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn. The Walking Dead. Orange, CA: Image Comics, 2010. Print. 5. Fallout. Interplay Entertainment. 1997. Video Game.

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