9/18/19 Branden Gallo Period 8

Brendan Gallo, Period 8, Modern Mythology 2020

Aim: How does the conclusion of The Road highlight the allusion of the boy as a Christ Figure?

We started out class today by spirit reading the last 10 pages of The Road, taking turns reading. This part of the book focused on the man’s death and the boy continuing his journey without him, with the man telling the boy to “carry the fire” and the boy trying to talk to God but instead talking to his father. 

After we read, we began to discuss the symbolism of fire in this book. Ryan started the discussion by saying that fire can represent a person’s drive, their will to keep going. The father, knowing he was about to die, wanted the boy to carry this fire that would eventually light their now dark world. Chloe brought up the story of Prometheus, where he provided fire to humanity to keep it going, and Joshua adds on by saying that fire is what separates us from animals, makes us civilized. The man doesn’t just want the boy to keep going no matter what, he wants the boy to rebuild humanity to its former glory. After our discussion, Ms. Fusaro explained that in literature, elemental forces always represent creation and destruction. Humanity cannot live without them, yet they are the one thing we cannot control. 

We then moved on to the final topic in our discussion, the question of how the boy could qualify as a Christ figure. Raphael started off by saying that the boy was extremely passionate for everyone in the book despite the very dark situation they were in, which is very much like how Jesus acted in his time. He added on to that by reminding the class that when the boy tried to listen for God, he could only hear his father. Jesus is said to be the son of God, making this comparison even stronger. Joshua and Lucas continue the discussion by saying that the boy stayed with his father for three days before leaving, a parallel to Jesus rising from the dead after three days. The book ends with a mention of fish, and Ms. Fusaro ended the discussion by telling the class that any time fish is mentioned in literature (specifically the half-infinity symbol) it is a reference to Christ, who brought fish to the people.

Throughout this period’s discussion I learned that any symbolism or parallel in a book can be much deeper than it initially appears. While the fire initially seemed to just represent the boy’s will to keep moving, through analysis we discovered that it symbolized the destruction of humanity the hope that civilization will be rebuilt. I also learned that even little things I would barely notice in literature can be symbolism for something. The boy’s compassion, him staying with his father for three days and him only hearing his father may not seem like much by themselves, but when put together make a pretty clear parallel to Christ. Learning these things now will help me be more watchful with future books, as there will be a ton of things that I’ll completely miss if I don’t read carefully.