“The Road” is one of the more touching novels that have been written in the recent decade, so much so that it even has a movie tie-up which unfortunately left out some essentials in the written version. The book has a simple plot — a nameless father and son in a post-apocalyptic setting where they struggle against all odds to survive in a world which has become one that is dull and unappealing, and where the majority of humans have turned into savages. However simple the story is, the author is able to maintain the interest of the reader via numerous literary devices which were effectively employed in the book’s entirety.
The main theme of the story is the man’s love for his son, and the limitless bounds which he can go through just to protect him and help him survive any situation at all costs. This is depicted in the way that the man cared for his son — trying his best to find food for him, keeping him warm, reading to him before he sleeps at night, and shooting the bandit who dared to touch him. It is a mission which he took on as the child’s father, his wife having decided to sacrifice herself so that there would be lesser mouths for him to feed. The conflict in the story is the father and son’s struggle against the bandits, the cannibals, fellow drifters who wanted to steal their scanty resources and the squalid environment the world had turned into. They are heading for the south as instructed by the man’s wife, and the challenges they had to face are primarily of hunger, slim chances of survival and an uncertain future. The mood is generally one of sadness as the settings were always described with gray landscapes and dull, lifeless surroundings.
The novel by Cormac McCarthy is riddled with similes, a few examples of which are: “like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world” (2), “the gray shape of the city vanished in the night’s onset like an apparition”(5), “like an animal inside a skull looking out the eyeholes” (32), “slumped and cowled and shivering in their rags like mendicant Friars” (64) and “thin and filthy as street addicts” (92). The first phrase describes the kind of world that the main characters are currently living in, and this is just one of those statements which illustrates the said setting. The second statement refers to the time when the father and son were camping out in the forest and darkness fell soon after. The third phrase reveals how the bandit – who took the boy as hostage – looked as the boy’s father pointed his revolver at him. The last two phrases portrays how the father and son appeared as they went about with their journey. Basing from these examples, it could be said that the author was most fond of similes as they are evident in most pages of the novel.
McCarthy also used the paradox in making the novel more empathetic. A paradox is defined as “a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity” (“Literary Terms”). “Like the dying world the newly blind inhabit” (McCarthy, 9) was meant to describe the kind of world the man expected to have in the offing. The phrase “the unseen sun cast no shadow” (McCarthy, 35) is also descriptive of the environment at the time of their travel, and at first is somehow confusing, but later on gives an idea to the reader of a depressing overall impression of the situation the main characters were in.
Another literary device employed by McCarthy is personification. “It is a representation of abstract ideas or inanimate objects as having human attributes or qualities” (“Literary Devices”). In the novel, the father believed that his dreams should be those which closely mirrored their current realities, otherwise, if the dreams were of the more pleasant one, death was sure to come soon. Hence, when he had this dream of walking through a flowering wood, one of the things he noticed was that “the sky was aching blue” (McCarthy, 9), because he disliked dreaming of such beautiful landscapes which may signal their impending doom. Likewise, when they were caught in a storm on the beach and they had to run to get to their tent with “the sand rattling against their legs” (McCarthy, 122), it made the sand somewhat animate or having its own innate ability to move. When the main characters were also running along the houses which they passed through, “the fine black soot raced along the street before them” (McCarthy, 104), it simply meant that they went so fast that all the dust and the ashes on the streets were disturbed with their presence.
The author also made use of allegory or a symbolic reference to something. McCarthy relates that the father in the story referred to his son as “God’s own firedrake” (15) because he often told him about the concept of “carrying the fire”. The father believed that it is the fire inside his son which will keep him alive and make him survive all the challenges he may face. Another notable allegory can be seen in this quote: “The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover” (McCarthy, 67). The two hunted animals in this quote are the father and his son who are fighting for their lives to survive the challenges they are confronted with.
There are also a number of hyperboles which were used in the story. Hyperboles are meant to give emphasis or somehow exaggerate the emotions felt by the reader as he / she reads through the novel. Some of these hyperboles from McCarthy’s novel are: “The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable” (8); “it was so quiet they could all but hear their hearts” (17); and “he coughed till his chest was raw” (91).
There is also a literary device called pathetic fallacy which McCarthy also used extensively in this novel. A literary device is said to be a pathetic fallacy “when the mood of the character is reflected in the atmosphere (weather) or inanimate objects” (“English Literary Devices”. The gloomy atmosphere and dull landscape which permeates the whole novel can be equated to the mood of the main character, the father, who, despite all odds tries to secure a better future for his son. Examples of pathetic fallacy as written by McCarthy are – the atmosphere that is either always raining or snowing; “gray salt spittle” (115), “gray as lava sand” (115) and “gray and freezing sea” (120).
McCarthy also made use of the literary device called foreshadowing which is a term used
“where future events in a story, or perhaps the outcome, are suggested by the author before they happen. This suggestion can be made in various ways such as a flashback, an object, or a previous minor situation which reflects a more significant situation later on” (“English Literary Devices”).
In the novel, McCarthy makes brief reference to the initial years when refugees started their journey of going south for more security and safety. Another use of foreshadowing is made in reference to his wife since at the outset of the story, the wife no longer exists, hence reference to her in the novel was made entirely through the use of this literary device. Through foreshadowing, the story of the past regarding the man and his wife were shown and how the wife feared for their lives so much that she sacrificed herself just so the burden will be much lighter for her husband and child.
Litotes were also used by the author to express his thoughts more vividly. The literary device called litotes “is an understated expression when the actual idea to be expressed is quite significant” (“Literary Devices”), and one specific example of this is this quote: “the boy was all that stood between him and death” (McCarthy, 15). The man loved his son so much, he was only living because of the boy, and it is only the boy which inspires him to move on.
Repetition as a literary device was also massively utilized in this novel by McCarthy. Perhaps to emphasize the gloom and desperation in the overall tone of the story, the words “gray” and “death” were mentioned numerous times in all chapters of the book. Here’s one example of 2 sentences where the word dead recurs 3 times — “A long drive with dead grass. Dead ivy along a stone wall and a mailbox and a fence along the road and the dead trees beyond” (McCarthy, 60). McCarthy is also fond of saying words twice to highlight certain points– like “Senseless. Senseless” (116); “Coughing. Coughing” (123), and the words “The Silence” which is repeated more than 5 times throughout the book. When the father was already getting weak, he told himself “Every day is a lie, he said. But you are dying. That is not a lie.” (McCarthy, 123) which underscored the inevitability of death for the father.
Other literary devices which were used by McCarthy but to a lesser degree were 1) metaphors – “a corpse in a doorway dried to leather” (6); 2) alliteration – “the grainy air” (10); and 3) dramatic irony – “dark of the invisible moon” (16). It is also worth noting that McCarthy made use of sentence fragments to call attention to certain points in the story. Furthermore, he also made use of sentences that could be labeled as grammatically incorrect but perhaps are merely reflective of McCarthy’s own brand of rhetoric. Samples of these points from McCarthy’s novel I am referring to are as follows: “On the road early the day following” (102); “All the day following they traveled through the drifting haze of woodsmoke” (24); “In some other world the child would already have begun to vacate him from his life. But he had no life other.” (142); “Rich dreams now which he was loathe to wake from” (67).
In conclusion, the author made use of several literary devices to elucidate and explicate his ideas in order to guide the reader into getting a better grasp of the story. These literary devices greatly aided in conveying to the reader a more vivid imagery of the story such that it elicited more empathy and compassion for the man and his son as they made their journey and the man was able to get his wish of securing a better life for his son.
Works Cited
“Literary Terms” Stanford website. Stanford.edu, n.d., Web. 8 May 2010 ;http://ai.stanford.edu/~csewell/culture/litterms.htm;
“Literary Devices” Buzzle.com, 2000-2010. Web. 8 May 2010 ;http://www.buzzle.com/articles/literary-devices.html;
“English Literary Devices” English.LearnHub.com, 2008-2010. Web. 8 May 2010 ;http://english.learnhub.com/lesson/4025-literary-devices;
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. United States: Alfred Knopf. 2006. Print.
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