The Road

AO3: Analysis and Evaluation of Theme

What do we know so far? Sum up what you know about these themes in one

minute.• The past as a different world to the present• The significance and meaning of the ending

– Tragedy and despair vs hope (especially at the end of the novel)

• ‘Goodness’ and evil: the ethical nature of the individual (what is good in this landscape?)

• The setting of the novel and its importance (setting = time and place)

My knowledge of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Prior to the lesson:

End of the lesson:

Strengths:

Areas to improve:

How am I going to achieve this?

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Interpret, Suggest, Apply

Analyse, explore

investigate, question

Devise, compose, construct,

merge (your ideas into an

essay)

Argue, assess, critique

Which level are you currently working at?

Set yourself a target for today’s lesson.

Expert Tables – Step 1

• Which theme are you focusing on for your coursework?

• Sit at a table with others who are studying your theme.

• Discuss how this theme is explored in the final section of the novel. Try to pick out some key quotes and apply some higher level thinking skills (see: Bloom’s).

Expert Tables – Step 2

• Each group at a table is now an ‘expert’ on its theme – but you need to have an understanding of the other themes too.

• Your group members will now visit the other tables and make notes on what they have discovered about their theme. Divide these up equally.

• One (or two) of your group will remain behind as your expert, and explain to your visitors what you have discovered about your section of the novel – try to analyse and evaluate.

• You have 5 minutes per table to collect information to take back to your original group.

Expert Tables – Step 3

• All your group members should be back at your table.

• You now have time to discuss, as a group, what you have discovered about the other themes and how this information can add to your ideas about your own theme, e.g. how do ideas of goodness and morality add to the sense of despair?

The most significant thing you have learned today is...

Narrative Devices Quiz – you can use your terminology sheet!

1. A narrator who is assumed to know everything connected with the story narrated.

2. The way in which a series of events – the story – is mediated and told (which may not be in the same order as the events took place).

3. The overall shape of the novel and the way the author has put together the story he or she is telling. Involves decisions about openings and endings: the division of story into chapters or sections, handling of time, use of frame stories.

4. Anything from a repeated word or image to a repeated event, used to draw attention to an aspect of the narrative and give it additional significance

5. First person, as though the narrator is verbalising their thoughts as they occur

6. Third person narration in which a character’s thoughts and feelings seem to be directly expressed, freely taking on the views and often the language of that character. Narratives often slide between conventional third person narration and this style, moving from a more detached voice to one that is more intimately connected to one character or another.

7. Speech given in the words of the character but without attribute speech tags (such as ‘he said’ or ‘she wept’)

8. The character from whose point of view the action is seen. 9. Anticipating events yet to occur. This may be done explicitly

where the narrator suggests ;if only they’d known’ for example, or may be very subtle through the word choices, imagery and so on.

10. Another word for analepsis: a reference to an event that occurred at an earlier point in the story.

Answers

1. Omniscient Narrator (3rd person)2. Narrative 3. Structure 4. Patterns and repetition 5. Interior monologue 6. Free indirect style 7. Free direct speech8. Focaliser 9. Foreshadowing 10. Flashback

Next Week’s Work1. Finish re-reading the novel, paying attention to the four themes we have identified for

our coursework essays. You should, by now, have an idea of which theme you will pick for your work – concentrate on that theme in particular, but be aware of links between the four.

2. Choose one of the following questions to work on. You are to produce a powerpoint presentation of at least five slides exploring the question you have chosen. Your work should include the following:– Key quotations from the novel – your handouts and class work should help you up to p185, after

this use your own reading of the end of the novel– Your analysis of these quotations, linking them to your chosen question and other parts of the

novel; use the handout on Bloom’s Taxonomy to remind yourself of the required higher-level thinking skills needed

– An argument or point of view – try to be convincing in your ideas– Appropriate AO4 links to context and influences, using the resources linked on the pinterest page

as a starting point.

Pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/vakeswick/cormac-mccarthy-s-the-road/

Your powerpoint must be ready to present for the first lesson next week and be stored on a memory pen.

Setting1. Some readers have commented on the significance of colour in ‘The Road’. What is your

opinion of this?2. “McCarthy constantly uses techniques to represent his idea of Dystopia: location is vital in

indicating the relationship the man and the boy have.” How far do you agree? How is McCarthy able to make the post-apocalyptic world of The Road seem so real and utterly terrifying?

3. “He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.

What might be suggested by the many descriptions of a scorched landscape covered in ash? What is meant by “the truth of the world” and why is this description significant?

4. When his father dies, The Boy repeats his name over and over. As readers, though, we have no idea what the name is. At the same time, McCarthy describes the setting of the novel in painstaking detail. What is the importance of naming and description in the novel? What does McCarthy name and what does he leave unnamed? How do these choices affect the novel?

Past1. In the Oprah interview, McCarthy specifically discusses how he came up with

the post apocalyptic plot as a vision of the world fifty years from now. How far do you agree with the view that ‘The Road’ is a warning of how much present-day humanity has to lose?

2. “He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, know or not.” What is McCarthy saying about the relationship between memories and reality? Do you agree? Why or why not?

3. “The clocks stopped at 1:17. A long shear of light and then a series of low concussions.” By employing analepsis, McCarthy does more than offer background information: since the flashbacks are not clearly separated from the rest of the narration, they intentionally obscure the story's linearity and reflect the man’s shifting between memory and reality. How does McCarthy use analepsis to create a distance between the man’s past and present realities?

Goodness1. “If only my heart were stone.” How far do you agree that the characters in

The Road display a disturbing lack of morality?

2. ‘What if I said that [the boy’s] a god?’ What is your response to the man’s question? Do you think the boy is truly good, or is it more accurate to call him naive?

3. McCarthy’s work often dramatizes the opposition between good and evil, with evil sometimes emerging triumphantly. What does The Road ultimately suggest about good and evil? Which force seems to have greater power in the novel?

4. The man and the boy think of themselves as the "good guys." In what ways are they like and unlike the "bad guys" they encounter? What do you think McCarthy is suggesting in the scenes in which the boy begs his father to be merciful to the strangers they encounter on the road? How is the boy able to retain his compassion--to be, as one reviewer put it, "compassion incarnate"?

Tragedy and despair versus hope

1. To what extent is the boy a symbol of hope in ‘The Road’?

2. It has been said that ‘The father and son’s journey to “carry the fire” is not only a testament to McCarthy’s love for his son but his faith in humanity.’ What do you think of this view?

3. “Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.” Judging by the other people the man and boy see and meet on the road, is there any hope for humanity and civilisation?