Daniel J's English Journal

1.
The Road can be interpreted as the setting for the result of a nuclear war and/or disaster. This could be the case on a close examination of the text. At first I believed this to be wrong, and that it was in fact the result of a mass volcanic eruption throughout America, but towards the end I believed that this may not have been the case. Firstly when the boy was born, the father looked out of the window and saw that the city was on fire. There was also no light, or a lack of sun rather, and everything was considerably covered in ash. This could have been the ‘nuclear winter’ and this was the permanent setting. Bodies were burnt to a crisp and the rivers and nearby lakes were foaming with ash. The father was also dying, as this was stated earlier in the book, this could have been the result of radiation poisoning. The reason the boy wasn’t dying was because he was born into a world where this was the norm, and therefore wouldn’t have known any different. This could have been a collision with an asteroid, and not anthropogenic such as a nuclear war. But this is still debatable and it is more than likely due to a war than anything else.
2.
There are many messages within The Road, and many are to do with the way we handle situations as people. I believe that the main point that McCarthy is trying to make, is that it doesn’t matter what scenario that us as humans are placed in, we will always survive through the toughest times. This is also relative in terms of family, and the power and the bond that the boy and man have between each other. Regardless of what they have to do, and the hard task the have been set, they will always fight through the toughest of times. The ‘fire’ that the father hands to his son to keep burning is symbolic of hope and shows that humanity will continue, generation after generation.
3.
‘On this road there are no god spoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world’ – This suggests that all of the good has been sucked out of the planet, and it is literally a ‘free-for-all’. This is shown when the boy is ‘taken hostage’ by the man, and he has to shoot the man to free him. This shows that there is no humanity left, and it is a fight to survive. In terms of the ash, this is a result of burning. In some cultures it is suggestive of a rebirth, and the on-going fight, but realistically it shows that what’s left is the end product of the fire.

Three writers that I have been privileged to have studied over the last seven months are Scott Fitzgerald, Christina Rossetti and Cormac McCarthy. All of which have used a completely different style of narrative to one another, and this is done through the use of setting. This is done through descriptive elements of writing such as adjectives, figurative language and more importantly, sensory description.

Scott Fitzgerald is the author of ‘The Great Gatsby’ – the story of Nick Carraway and his tale through a post-world-war New York City. Fitzgerald carefully picked his setting as the 1922 era was one of prosperity in the United States, known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’. This could be seen as a key use of narrative as it sets the tone for what type of book the reader is expecting. This helps with narrative as Nick will be placed within the ‘jazz years’ of the US and will therefore as a consequence have to deal with scenarios that you would be likely to find. An example of this would be Gatsby’s party. With drinking, gambling and scenes of sexually explicit nature, this helps Fitzgerald with the story as it show’s Nick’s ability to cope in these situations. There is also a symbolic side to this, with the ‘Valley of Ashes’ being used to signify the either the re-birth of the area at the very least, or the divide between the ‘poor and rich’ sides to New York. This aids the narrative behind the main plot, with middle class morality and the divide between them and the working class, as well as how it affects the civilisation of the City.

Christina Rossetti on the other hand uses places in her narrative to set the tone in a completely different manner. Goblin Market for one uses the setting of a typical fairy-tale land in order to give the idea to the reader the perception that everything is ‘good’. This is used through descriptive language which provides vibrant imagery and colourful surroundings. The setting is also used in an attempt to mask the underlying messages of which a poet such as Rossetti wishes the reader to read in-between the lines. In terms of the narrative, this is aided through the description of the actual ‘Goblins’ who I believe are supposed to be her interpretation of men, as she believed strongly in feminism and it’s values. Another poem in which Rossetti uses a place would be Sister Maude. There isn’t actually a setting for the poem, but more of a diary entry or as though the Narrator would be talking to you. It is rather the mention of certain places that lead me to believe this is an ideal poem to write about. Rossetti was a very religious poet, and her uses of biblical references help this point. ‘My father may sleep in Paradise’ is suggestive of her love for the dad, whilst ‘My mother at Heaven’s gate’ suggests that although there is affection for her, it doesn’t match the love for her father. Either way, the symbolically religious places are brought into the poem with intention and the uses of them in her narrative are significant.

Cormac McCarthy is the author of The Road, and as a post-apocalyptic book, it is quite understandable that the setting is rather grim. Other than assuming that the story is set in North-East America, there is no actual reference to the location, only that the Boy and Man are heading south. It is described as a place with a significant amount of ‘charred and limbless trunks of trees’ and ‘sagging hands of blind wire, strung from blackened light poles’ – This sets the tone rather nicely! A comparison to draw with Fitzgerald … They have both used the idea of ‘Ash’. The idea of a ‘phoenix from the ashes’ could be used, but realistically Fitzgerald’s use of the phrase differs from McCarthy’s. McCarthy has used this for descriptive purposes, but also as clarification of destruction, and that the surroundings are vanished into dust… or in this case ash.

To conclude, the three authors that I have studied use the place to help the narrative in many ways, one different from the other. Rossetti uses hers as a disguise for what may be considered as subliminal, whilst Fitzgerald uses it for morality. Morality in the sense that there is a divide between the two sides of the city, the more financially better off and those who aren’t. McCarthy uses this to help describe, as without the places illustrated in the reader’s head, the reader may find the story difficult to comprehend as they persevere.

What is a dystopia exactly? Well as a definition, ‘an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one’ – or so the Oxford dictionary believes it to be.

In terms of The Road, it is clear to see why the thoughts of a dystopia could be taken into consideration, with a post-apocalyptic setting and a small variety of characters to choose from. Friedrich Nietzche believes that in order to actually ‘live’ your life, you must frequently persevere through ‘suffering, desolation, Ill-treatment and indignities’. This could be compared to The Road in many ways…

McCarthy paints the world of which the characters are alive through the use of dark and depressing imagery, which unfortunately provides the ideology of suffering and loss of dignity. This aids Nietzche’s quote above and linking back to the original theme, also constantly shows the divide between the reality of which the reader is in, and the character’s post-apocalyptic dystopia. It almost signify’s the idea of hell-on-earth and the occurrences that ‘the Man’ and ‘the Boy’, as they are commonly referred to as, have to deal with.

The author through the use of adjectives and the surroundings does indeed hint at the idea of a dystopia, but it would almost be wrong to define it as one as the story behind the Earth’s decline isn’t mentioned. It could potentially be anthropogenic in terms of a nuclear war, or natural through meteorite and collisions. A dystopia would not be keeping the reader in the dark concerning it’s happenings.

The world may have become a bleak and hostile environment for one to live in, with the contemplation of a possible death throughout the opening pages of the book, but this is only used as a setting. This is only used as a background for the more heart-warming idea of the story of a young lad and his father, and their search down ‘The Road’ to salvation.

The dystopia for which the book is described as, leads me to believe that there is more than one meaning behind it. I have been toying with the idea that the setting is the harsh reality of the world we’re living in now, just without such dyer consequences. McCarthy may be hinting at this idea in particular, or maybe another in the sense that this is what the world could come to in the near future.

Just a thought.