9/17/19 Derek Coffey PD1

Derek Coffey PD 1

9/17/19

Aim: How does Maccarthy demonstrate the tenacity of love in a time of despair?

Do Now: Let's make a brutally honest list of the joys and sorrows of truly loving someone. 

As Paulina put it in class, there are many joys that come with true love. You feel a certain calmness around them allowing yourself to become the real you. You feel happiness when your love is happy. However there are drawbacks to being that attached to another person. There will be inevitable fights and arguments leaving you vulnerable. The most important thing to takeaway is although love can be hard and frustrating in the end true love will make you feel happier than anything in the world. 

Love in a Time of Cannibalism

 Exploring monsters— the vampires, the zombie, they share the desire/need to eat humans which seem gruesome to us. How does cannibalism compare?

“What the boy had seen was a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackening on the spit. He bent and picked the boy up and started for the road with him, holding him close. I’m sorry, he whispered, I’m sorry” (198)

• Cannibalism in our perspective is much more gruesome than vampires or zombies
• There is a conscious decision for a human to eat another human which separates it from other creatures eating humans  
• The imagery of charred infants like rotisserie chicken is quite unsettling
• All monsters we encounter are a reflection of humankind

Because we’re the good guys, right?

Cormac envisions a post-apocalyptic world in which “murder was everywhere upon the land” and the earth would soon be “largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes” (181).

Why the children? How is this vision of cannibalism so much more grisly and repugnant? What is the statement about the future?

Children are a representation of innocence and purity. By eating an innocent child these people are commiting an atrocity that would not happen in a functioning society. Furthermore, the children are the future generation. By eating children they are killing off the next generation in order to survive for another day. They are giving up on mankind. 

Cormac McCarthy… on his son

Cormac McCarthy - Born July 20, 1993

His son, John Francis - Born 1999

McCarthy was 66 years old when he had his son. If we attribute that the writer’s life may have influence on the novel (such as we will with Gardner and Grendel) , then how does this explain the relationship between the father and the son? What changes as a result of his age?

• McCarthy connects parts of the story about the father and son to his own situation
• Book was dedicated to his son in a sense
• The boy and father have an ongoing relationship in the book where the father teaches the son how to be careful and survive while the son teachers the father empathy despite the dramatic situation

Reflection

This lesson gave me a lot of insight on what it means to be a loving father. Cormac Mccarthy admits in the interview he wrote the novel as a love story of sorts for his son. Throughout the road, Cormac shows the innocence of his child through his compassion despite their life or death situation. The father keeps his son away from danger, and the son teachers his father how to be human. Throughout the lesson we also touched upon some of the main themes for the course. We learned that humans can be the most evil monsters of all, beyond any zombies or vampires. When society breaks down in the Road humans are driven to commit despicable acts of cannibalism and violence. It may seem far-fetched, however this dark spirit lives inside of all humankind.